


The Stranger

by Anahoney13



Series: The Cali-Ann Files [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood
Genre: F/F, F/M, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Multi, Near Death, Romantic Comedy, implied three way
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-20
Updated: 2016-08-28
Packaged: 2018-01-16 10:17:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 22
Words: 59,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1343875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anahoney13/pseuds/Anahoney13





	1. Prologue

Unknown Planet (Unknown Time)

Gently he set the now sleeping baby in the basket, tucking the watch with in the folds. He laid a gentle kiss on his little girl’s forehead before setting her on the steps of the home in the predawn light. He prayed she would grow to be as strong and beautiful as her mother, and as intelligent as himself, however what he prayed for most was that she would be safe and happy in this other world.

Cardiff, Wales (2008)

With Jack gone, Gwen swiftly took over, hence giving even more time to Torchwood. After only a month of the near constant work Rhys couldn’t handle it and told her it was him or “that bloody job.” Gwen couldn’t leave the team once again without a leader and begged Rhys to stay, however the next morning she was found sleeping on the couch in Torchwood by Owen. He held her while she cried, before telling her that she was always welcome to stay with him. By the time Jack showed up another 2 months later, Owen had proposed.

Tosh, while slightly disappointed in the loss of any chance with Owen was extremely happy for her friends. While the team had seemingly moved on from the abandonment of their Captain, she stilled missed him dearly, a trait she shared with Ianto. The two of them would go out 3-4 times a week to a small pub in between their two flats and would offer the other a shoulder to cry on.

When Jack returned from his trip with the Doctor he was surprised by how much his team had changed. When Ianto asked if he was leaving again his heart broke at the look in Ianto’s eyes, it was like he was a small child begging their mother to tell them the monsters under the bed weren’t real, but knew that they were. Jack wanted nothing more than to pull him into his arms and assure him for hours on end that he wouldn’t leave him again, however he wasn’t sure if the Coffee Boy would forgive him so quickly or easily. The appearance of John Hart didn’t make things any easier, and his announcement of Gray was hardest of all. That night Ianto found him in his office staring out over the Hub and his team as they left, tears slowly making tracks down his face. That night for the first time in longer than he could remember he let someone hold him while he cried, and after he cried over the loss of not only his family but also his own innocence, he told his beautiful Welshman the story of his home.


	2. Meeting

Dirt and rock exploded out word as the black foreign aircraft crashed through the atmosphere and landed in Beauville Woods. A door was kicked open from the inside and a small lanky figure climbed out dressed in black leather with silver cuffs on each wrist and a black helmet blocking the view of its face. Crouching outside the spaceship, it reached in and helped pull free twelve more figures of varying heights and builds, all dressed the same and all very feminine.  
“What about the Captain?” a soft tearful voice asked from behind one of the helmets.  
“We can’t help the Captain.” The first figure snapped, “We need to move, find out where and when we landed. Luckily its night, and hopefully this is still earth. Until we know what the atmosphere is like, helmets and air stay on.” She commanded as they made their way toward the lights of the city.

Five miles away Captain Jack Harkness was calling the troops back, each bitching about leaving only ten minutes prior. As the Last of them meandered in he filled them in. “twenty minutes ago a “UFO”” Jack rolled his eyes at the term, “was seen falling in Beauville Wood. We need to find and detain the crash site, let’s move out.” They all headed for the SUV, piling in with Jack and Ianto in the front and Owen squished between Gwen and Tosh in the back. Owen wondered if he was the only one who noticed how close the Captain and the Tea boy had been getting lately. When they arrived on scene Jack and Gwen disappeared into the already open ship while the other three set up the lights to take in the scene.  
“We have a stiff one,” Jack said climbing out of the shuttle before pulling Gwen out, “and if this ship was full, as I suspect it was, we have 13 live ones out there. Ianto, Tosh, transport the remains back to the hub and get back here, there are more out there and we don’t know what they are, let’s get them rounded up before they start causing chaos.” Jack commanded. “Everyone keep your lines open and we will each take separate directions, my guess they will all be dressed just like that one, minus the crack in the helmet and broken neck. Yell if you see something, do not, I repeat do NOT; try to apprehend on your own, we have no clue what they are yet. Let’s round them up before dawn.” with that Jack, Gwen and Owen all split in different directions, while the others loaded the body into the SUV. Slowly Jack headed in the direction of the first lights he could see, where he figured the intruders had headed. Even when they thought he was splitting things evenly, his team never seemed to realize how much he put himself in danger when he thought it could save them, especially Gwen and Ianto. He reached the first street he followed it into town. Walking on bent knees he listened for the tell tail signs of creaking leather, and pounding feet. About a hundred yards ahead of him he saw one of the creatures dart across the road and took off after it.  
“Sighting on Cardiff Rd heading North East.” He yelled into his ear piece. “STOP WHERE YOU ARE, I WON’T HURT YOU I WANT TO HELP!” Jack yelled to the invader. He continued to chase the assailant till he was only a few feet from it and launched himself at the figure, tackling it to the ground, thinking that he was glad they hadn’t made it to the residential area yet. Before he could blink he was thrown off and the figure was crouched into a fighting stance facing him. He could hear the sound of feet pounding down the road toward them. As he pulled himself to his feet what felt like an elbow connected with his chin sending him stumbling back before a foot was planted in his chest shoving him against a tree. His team surrounded them, guns trained on the attacker.  
“Tell them to drop the weapons.” A husky voice ordered, moving the foot to his windpipe and pressing, “or I’ll kill you.”  
“You can’t kill me, and they won’t drop their weapons.” Jack said before grabbing the foot at his throat and twisting, slamming the figure helmet first into the concrete of the street. At the impact, the face plate of the helmet cracked. Growling in frustration the figure pulled the helmet off and whipped it into the trees. Falling from the helmet was a mass of black hair that curled tightly and framed the near delicate face of his opponent. “Well shit.”  
“What?” asked Owen slowly moving to the right of Jack as Tosh moved to the left and Ianto and Gwen cove red the center.  
“I can’t hit a woman.” Jack said, wishing for once he could go against his upbringing.  
“Well I have no problem hitting a man.” The girl in front of him said, before jumping up and kicking him twice in the chest making him stumble back before letting out a piercing whistle. Suddenly the Torchwood team was surrounded; each had two guns pressed to the back of their heads. “Now like I said before tell your team to drop them.”  
“Guys, do what she says, “Jack ordered, not willing to risk the lives of his team mates, “we don’t want to hurt you we want to help.” He said to the woman in front of him hoping to convince her of the truth.  
“Yeah well, then you can help by answering a few questions, like where are we?” she said hands on her hips.  
“Cardiff UK, Earth.” Jack answered.  
“When?”  
“2007”  
“Shit, the General is going to have my hide.” She paced slightly, “listen we are from the 52nd century. We’re from the US military sent out on a mission, my guess is your fucking rift in time brought us here, can you help us get back?”  
“We can try but we don’t exactly know how to manipulate the rift safely yet. Captain Jack Harkness, by the way.” Jack said feeling slightly more at ease, “Maybe we could finish this conversation back at our base?”  
“Lieutenant Cali-Ann Manson, any of you try anything we will kill all of you without hesitation.”  
“Understood.”  
“Ok girls put them up.” all twelve girls stepped back and holstered their guns. Jack’s ears picked up the noise of movement only second before all hell broke loose.  
Suddenly they were all under-fire from both sides by what could best be described as laser blasts. Jack and his team instantly hit the ground before firing back. Time seamed to slow for Cali-Ann as her Team was taken down one by one from the unseen enemy. A stream shot through her side sending her down as she continued to fire into the woods. After only five minutes the air was silent except for the heavy breathing. Jack quickly moved into the woods motioning for his team to stay put. On both side he found two dead Aliens. Owen moved swiftly through the bodies checking for life. When he got to Cali-Ann the look in his eyes, told her all she needed to know, and she let a silent tear roll down her cheek. She gasped out as Owen looked over the severe burn on her side.  
“We got them all, no clue what they are or where they are from, but they are all dead.” Jack said.  
“Help me up, let me look at them.” Cali-Ann said forcing herself to sit up. Jack slipped his arm around her waist careful of the injury, and helped her into the woods. “Cashiarn, that’s what we were on our way to stop, they were trying to take over one of our outer colonies; they must have followed us here.”  
“We need to get you back to the Hub for medical attention, and we will see to your comrades.” Jack said helping her back to the road, just as Ianto pulled up in the SUV.  
“Thank you.” She said as Jack Helped her into the back seat.  
“Alright, Gwen and Tosh I need you to stay here with the Bodies, I’ll go back with Ianto and Owen to the Hub with our guest here. Ianto and I will come back and we can start the Body retrieval, stay out of sight.” Jack order before helping to load four of the fallen soldiers into the back of the SUV, it was going to be a long night. Owen pressed a kiss to Gwen’s lips, both assuring the other that they were ok, before climbing to the back of the SUV. 

An hour later Jack and Ianto had finished sliding the last body into the cryo-chamber. Owen had seen to Cali-Ann’s wound and had given her faded jeans a t-shirt to change into, also confiscating both wrist units for inspection. They and the rest of the team were now in the board room.  
“So how can we help you get back?” Jack asked coming into the room, shortly followed By Ianto who had brought coffee.  
“Doesn’t matter now, not enough people to fly the ship, no honor to go back with.” She said silently accepting the steaming mug. She took a small sip and grimaced at the bitter taste of the coffee.  
“Wasn’t sure how you liked it, I can get you cream or sugar if you want.” Ianto offered.  
“Lots of both if you wouldn’t mind,” she said with a grateful smile, “never was big on coffee. Actually you wouldn’t by any chance have some hot chocolate I could add to this would you?”  
Jack smirked at the flash of disgust in Ianto’s eyes at the thought of ruining his coffee with hot chocolate, “of course I’ll be right back.”  
“I don’t mean to offend anyone, just can’t stand the taste of coffee, unless mixed with large amounts of chocolate and sugar.” She said before sliding into one of the chairs.  
“Well I’ll hope you understand that we can’t let you roam our time until we know more about you, and make sure you’re not a threat.” Jack said sitting next to her at the head of the table.  
“Completely,” she smiled up at Ianto as he set down a small tray with the requested items next to her, “thank you. So what do you want to know?”  
“You said you came from the 52nd century, when exactly?”  
“We left in the year 5122”  
“You said outer colonies, what did you mean?” Gwen asked.  
Cali-Ann smiled, “I’m sorry, I can’t answer that, too much chance of changing the future.”  
“She’s right, we can’t ask too much about it,” Jack said, “However you said you were from Earth, I take it then that you are-“  
“Human, yes. We haven’t quite evolved to the point of allowing Aliens into the military. Then again we just got rid of the men.”  
“You mean there are no men in the military?” Tosh asked.  
“Not a single one, we couldn’t take the chances any more. Men, or at least men of the future, are controlled too much by their testosterone, we needed to be able to think more logically. There hasn’t been a man in the upper ranks in the past 50 years.”  
“I had heard something about that while I was a boy, never thought it would be true.” Jack murmured.  
“What do you mean?” Cali-Ann asked looking at him confused.  
“You’re looking at a 51st century man.” Jack said with a smile.  
“I thought I recognized that scent. You’re from the Boeshane aren’t you?”  
“You’ve been there?”  
“No, but I studied it in school, or the attacks anyway.”  
“I see.”  
“So how did you end up here?”  
“Long story, but we’ll just blame it on the Time Agency.”  
Cali-Ann rolled her eyes, “They always do cause trouble.”  
“You know them?”  
“Any military worth their grain in salt knows about them, and stays far away. So if you’re a Time Agent why are you still here?”  
“Ex-Time Agent, Time Vortex shorted out, and I like it here.”  
“I’m sorry, but would it at all be possible to continue this in the morning? I’m kind of beat.”  
“Sure follow me.” Jack led her down into the vaults. “I’m sorry we can’t be more accommodating, but we really can’t take any chances.” He said opening one of the cells.  
“I understand, and I’m military, it’s not like we normally stay at a five star.” She said walking in and dropping to sit on the mattress covered cement slab. The team had found the old worn mattress along with the pillow and thread bear blanket in one of the storage rooms.  
“Hopefully we can get you in a more comfortable surrounding tomorrow.” Jack said closing the cell. Cali-Ann made a noise in her throat before laying back and closing her eyes, wishing to block out the day.


	3. Sexcapades

Slowly the team all packed up and went home, till just Jack and Ianto were left at the Hub. Ianto stood at the small sink, washing the six coffee mugs; he was still slightly disturbed by how the new comer had ruined his coffee. Jack slid his arms around Ianto’s waist, resting his chin on his shoulder.  
“You don’t have to stay here.” He said, but not really wanting the other man to leave.  
“I know, but maybe I want to.” Ianto answered, still not turning from the sink.  
“Oh really?” softly Jack started placing small kisses along the other man’s neck, wondering how long it would take to distract him from his task. It didn’t take as long as Jack thought before they were slowly making their way to the small bunker under his office, pushing at each other’s shirts, mouths never leaving each other. They separated briefly to drop into the bunker before they were back where they had left off. Jack rolled over Ianto pinning him to the bed with his normal wicked smile in place. Just as he stared to lower his lips to Ianto’s neck, they heard a shrill scream from down in the Vaults. “Shit.” Jack Jumped up. “Stay here, I’ll be right back.” He ordered Ianto, not wanting to put the young Welshman in any danger. He raced down to the vaults.  
When he got there he found Cali-Ann huddled in the corner of her cell, face buried in her hands. “Help me.” She squeaked at him, peaking through her fingers.  
Quickly Jack opened the cell and rushed over to her. “What’s wrong?”  
“Help…” she reached out to him her fingers brushing over his hand, and they were both lost.

After a few minutes Ianto, getting both worried and impatient, moved to Jack’s office and pulled up the CCTV of the vaults. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Jack had the new comer pressed against the wall of the cell, his mouth trailing down her neck, her arms clutching his shoulders, his hands slowly trailing up her sides. Quickly he made his way down to the Vaults, he couldn’t believe Jack would do this. When he got down to the Vaults they had moved across the cell, Jack was sitting on the cot with the new comer straddling his lap. Both of their shirts lay forgotten on the floor. Ianto opened the door with a deep growl. He reached out intending to pull the small woman off of Jack, but the moment his hand touched her skin all he wanted to do was press himself against her back.

Cali-Ann woke up, stretching as she always did, before going still. She was no longer on the fairly uncomfortable cot but was pressed between two warm bodies, on the hard concrete floor of the cell. Her eyes snapped open and she looked down to see Ianto, the coffee boy, fast asleep face resting on her chest. Turning her head and looking up she found herself looking at the face of Captain Jack Harkness.  
“No, no, no, no.” quickly she pushed her way from between the two of them. This could not be happening. Her quick movements awoke the two men on the floor, each rolling over onto their backs with a groan, looking completely confused. Cali-Ann grabbed the blanket and clutched it to her chest, “I’m sorry. I am so, so sorry.” She said moving to the corner fighting the tears.  
“WH-what happened?” Jack said sitting up, not even fazed by his lack of clothes.  
“It’s my fault, I’m so sorry.” She watched as Ianto immediately started to dress, his eyes not leaving the floor. He threw Jack his pants which the captain slid into.  
“Ok why don’t you calm down and tell us what happened.” Jack said reaching a hand out to her.  
“NO!” she cringed back into the corner, “don’t touch me, you CAN NOT touch me.” Both guys watched her with weary eyes now.  
“You told us yesterday, you were no danger, now I need you to explain to me what happened and how it was your fault.” Jack said taking a step back, yet making sure he was between the frightened woman and Ianto.  
“It’s not something I can control, ok? Please I’ll explain everything. I just, please I need a shower and to get dressed, please I’m sorry, I am so, so sorry.”  
“Ok, Ianto, why don’t you go put on some coffee and a hot chocolate for her.” Jack said still not taking his eyes off of her but wanting to get Ianto out of the way of any possible danger. “I’ll step outside and you can get dressed then I will take you down to the showers.” She nodded her head still watching them with wide eyes. Both men exited the cell, and for the first time Jack turned to look at Ianto. “Are you okay?”  
“Yeah.”  
“Ok what do you remember because the last thing I remember was her reaching out asking for help, and I do remember telling you to stay put.”  
Ianto rolled his eyes. “I got worried so I checked the CCTV from your office and saw the two of you going at it like rabbits against the wall, so I came down here, I was actually pretty pissed, when I got in there I reached out to pull her off and… that’s it.”  
“Ok so now we understand no touching,” Jack reached out and laid his hand on Ianto’s shoulder, “why don’t you head up, I’m sure we will be up soon.”  
“Ok, I’ll keep an eye on the CCTV, Sir.” Jack watched as Ianto walked toward the main part of the Hub. Jack reached his hand out and rapped lightly on the glass in question. Slowly Cali-Ann stepped out; still she could not meet his eyes.

An hour later the three of them were in Jack’s office with the door closed. Jack was sitting in his chair behind his desk, looking relaxed as ever if you didn’t know him enough to see the slight vibrations of restless energy he was giving off. Ianto stood off to the side by the door, looking on with cool eyes. Cali-Ann was curled into one of the chairs opposite Jack’s desk, one knee pulled to her chest. “Ok, Cali-Ann time to explain.” Jack said talking a sip of the Coffee on his desk.  
“Please call me Cali. It started about 20 years ago, my time, they decided the human race was dying out, or at least the pure Humans were. They started giving all the girls injections twice a year, once on their birthday, and once on their half birthday. The injections were a type of manmade hormone that wouldn’t activate till the girls reached 16 and stopped receiving the shots. We would get 20 of these shots, the first on our fifth birthday, the last six months before our 16th birthday. When they stopped the shots the reaction caused severe pain during a three day period when the injection would normally be given. During these times it would also cause a reaction in guys when they touched us, even the most innocent of touches such as a hand shake. It makes all of those involved think only of sex to the point where they can’t think of anything else, they can’t stop it, and you don’t remember any of it. It also makes women more fertile, and the men involved more potent. I didn’t think about it because being in the military I have an anti-serum of sorts, from my cuffs. It will beep when I need the shot and then I can administer it. I haven’t thought about it in so long. I’m so sorry.” When she finished her eyes flicked up to look at Jack who was looking at her in both understanding and something that wasn’t quiet pity, but close. Behind her Ianto was struggling to keep a look of complete disgust and horror off his face at what had been done to her. It was like her own government had raped her.  
“Ok, what can we do to make sure this doesn’t happen again?” Jack asked.  
“I need the cuffs that Dr. Harper took last night. Inside them I have the Anti-Serum, and a second injection that can …. Reverse any results of last night. I will show you exactly how they work and everything about them, but as I said I need those cuffs.”  
Jack took a deep breath, “Well then let’s get them.” Jack walked over to the safe at the side of the room and opened it pulling out a box. Inside were both cuffs which he gently took out. He placed them on his desk. “I can’t let you take them till you explain them, but I can allow you to administer the needed … medications.”  
Nodding Cali-Ann leaned forward and pressed three buttons on the one cuff. Immediately a small compartment opened and revealed three small vials. Cali-Ann pulled out two, one was a near florescent green, this one she slid the needle into her arm and injected, the other was a pale blue. Both Jack and Ianto watched in near shock as she stabbed this into her hip before injecting it. She slid both now empty containers into the cuff and closed the compartment. The cuff started making a small humming sound as the compartment closed.  
“Ok in this cuff,” she motioned to the one she had just used, “holds the anti-Serum, which was the green, the, um … reversal, which was the blue, and the last one in there, the red one, is an anti-poison, and it works on everything. All three are made by elements in the air that the cuff can convert. May I?” she asked motioning to it. Jack nodded his head. She slipped the cuff onto her right wrist. “This one here is a little more …. Complicated. “She motioned to the cuff still on the desk. “it has a communications system, it monitors all of my vitals when I have it on, has a tracker on it, a GPS, can manipulate most electronics, and has three small poison darts, that we can use as a last ditch effort in battle.”  
“Ok, sorry, but I don’t think we can give this one back quiet yet,” Jack said sliding the cuff back toward him. The thought of letting a stranger loose in the hub equipped with poisonous dart was just little bit like sticking his team in a tank with an unknown animal that may or may not tear them limb from limb.   
“Completely understand. Again I can’t say how sorry I am about last night, if I had even suspected that it would happen I would have warned you.” She said taking a deep drink of the hot chocolate Ianto had made, humming in delight has the rich liquid slid down her throat. “Last night Captain you said you had more questions for me, please ask them. I’m sure last night was great however, I would like to do what I can to start some semblance of a life here since there isn’t any real way for me to get home.” As Jack started his questions Ianto slid out to start everyone else’s coffee as they arrived.

An hour later they both exited Jacks office, both cuffs secured to Cali’s wrists, “Ianto,” Jack called out to get the Welshman’s attention, “Can you take Cali out to get clothes?”  
“Sure.” He answered handing Jack a new mug of coffee. “Though wouldn’t Gwen or Tosh be better for the job?”  
“Ah but you’re the only one with a company card besides me.”  
“I see, well,” he turned to Cali, “we should get going.”  
“Right, I don’t need much, though I would be grateful if I could get a replacement for my jacket that was ruined last night? It really helps to stop the cuff from chaffing.”  
“I know where we can go for that.” Ianto said and lead the way out.

Ianto was surprised by just how little Cali had decided she needed, only buying enough clothes to last a week. She’d gotten 7 pairs of jeans all in a rather tight boot cut, and all in darker colors. For tops she picked out 14 cotton tank tops all in varying colors. At Ianto’s suggestion she grabbed 2 pairs of night shorts, pants and shirts, not really looking at what was on them. She spent the most time picking out the replacement Jacket. Ianto watched as she first ran her hand over the different leathers in the shop, not once looking at a tag. He had to admit he was impressed that she could pick out the finer leathers by just a touch. After settling on three different jackets she tried each one on, testing her movement in them. While the rest of the shopping had taken only a total of an hour, it took Cali nearly the same to pick out the jacket.  
Finally she turned to look at Ianto, “Would it be alright if I picked up a few items to condition the jacket?”  
“Of course.” Ianto smiled at her, he wasn’t sure why, but since hearing her story, Ianto felt drawn to her. As they walked toward the checkout he saw a pair of gloves that matched the jacket she had picked and grabbed a pair for her knowing how cold the Welsh weather could get. He set the gloves on top of the jacket and paid for them and the conditioning. As they walked back to the hub Ianto spotted a small café he would stop at in the morning sometimes, “Hungry?” he asked looking down at her.   
“A bit.”  
“Come on.” He led her into the café, holding the door open for her. “What would you like?” he asked.  
“Ianto, I have no clue what any of this is.” She said with a small laugh.  
“Oh, right….hmm,” Ianto ordered them each a sandwich with cheese and tomatoes with a light vinaigrette and a coke, before heading back to a small table near the back of the café.  
“So what is it that you guys do?” Cali asked.  
“Well there’s a rift that runs through Cardiff that aliens slip through along with people from other times such as yourself. We just help everyone acclimate to their life here or we send them home if possible.” He explained while tucking a napkin into his collar, a gesture Cali couldn’t help but find charming. “What about you? What was the future like?”  
“Wonderful.” She gave a small laugh, “my mother was an Officer in the military, my father raised me till I was about 11. Then they sent me off to a small military academy on the out skirts of town. Ever since I was like 5 my mom and I would run courses together. Back then I didn’t realize she was training me, it was all just fun and games.”  
“So you’ve always been military? You’re what like 20?” Ianto asked incredulously. He couldn’t believe her entire life had been nothing but the military, he couldn’t imagine a childhood like that.  
“22 and you can’t be much older.” She said with a small laugh.  
“You’re right, only 24 here.” He said with a small smile. The rest of the small lunch was filled with idle chat as they started to get to know one another.  
When they got back to the Hub Cali walked up to Jack’s office. She gave a small knock on the door, leaning on the door frame. “What’s up?” he asked glancing up from his paper work.  
She walked in setting a cup of coffee Ianto had given her to give the captain on his desk, “I want to join Torchwood.” She said sitting down across from him.  
He looked up with an eyebrow raised. “Did Ianto tell you bringing me coffee with soften me up?”  
“He said it might help.” She said with a small smile.  
“And if I tell you there are no positions open?”  
“I’ll say that I have different Alien knowledge than you do and that can be nothing but an asset.” Her smile was slowly turning into grin.  
“I have to talk to my team.”  
“But you are the one who will make the final decision.” She sat back in the chair, knowing she was going to get her way. She watched as Jack walked out to the Hub and called everyone into the boardroom. After a few minutes Jack walked back in, “Well?”  
“Trail period, six weeks, you pull any shit your out.”  
“Deal.”


	4. Sleepers

That night after every one went home Cali changed into the pair of pajamas she had picked up and stretched herself out along the couch. She had the pillow and blanket from the night before in the vaults but had to admit that the couch was much more comfortable. She closed her eyes as she listened to Jack move around in his darkened office. After a few minutes of tossing and turning on the couch she settled in comfortably, her eyes closed and she drifted off to sleep. Just as her breathing leveled out Jack’s phone rang.  
“Captain Jack Harkness.” He answered as usual.  
“We have another one.” Said the voice on the line. It was one of Jack’s contacts on the police force, while they all acted as if Torchwood was the Anti-Christ its self, jack had at least one spy in every precinct that would call him and his team in when there was anything fishy. Each time they would say just that one line and hang up. Jack quickly called the rest of his team back as he walked out to wake Cali.  
“Uh?” she sat straight up as Jack carefully shook her shoulder.  
“Get ready we leave when everyone gets here. I’ll explain on the way.” He said hanging up with Owen and calling Ianto next. Quickly Cali slid her jeans over the sleep shorts she had on and pulled her shirt off to slide on a bra and the shirt she had next to the couch. She was pulling on her boots as Jack hung up with Tosh, the last of the team to be called. She slid her fire arms into the holster at the base of her spine as she stepped on the lift next to Jack. She pulled the leather jacket on just as the breeze from the bay was able to sweep across her shoulders as they emerged. She smiled gratefully at the gloves she found in the pocket of the jacket. She stood with Jack as they waited for the others to arrive. When they got there she climbed in the back of the SUV with Tosh as Jack and Ianto Sat upfront, Gwen and Owen following in their own car. As they made their way to the scene Tosh pulled up the police reports and the police radio conversations. “Tosh what happened here?” Jack asked as we pulled up, all comms units open so both Gwen and Owen could hear them.  
“Two IC1 males. One fatality, one seriously wounded after a fall from a fifth floor window. Onto a police vehicle.” Owen immediately made his way over to the guy lying across the police cruiser with a black ski mask covering his face.  
“Gwen, Owen go with him to the hospital. See if he says anything.” Jack ordered pausing for only a second, “Interview the husband and wife while you’re there. Tosh, Cali-Ann, with me. Ianto go see what you can schmooze out of the PCs.” After discovering nothing new at the scene and receiving a call from Gwen as the pulled up to the Hub Jack and Cali went to go pick up the woman from the apartment and bring her back after dropping the other two off. Jack and Gwen interrogated the woman till the light bulb went out and Jack decided to let Gwen take over for a few.  
“Just us and this room for as long as it take?” Ianto said repeating Jacks words as he walked over to him, “terrifying.”   
“Really?” Jack looked surprised.  
“Absolutely. Shivers down my spine.” Ianto said barely able to keep a straight face.  
“You don’t look scared.” Jack responded in a near accusatory tone.  
“Oh,” Ianto looked over Jacks shoulder, “it passed.” Cali giggled as Jack let out a mock growl of frustration. She could tell these two were going to be entertaining, Jack with his fast pace, in your face, exuberance, and Ianto with his dry, subdued humor.  
“Tosh, anything on the body scan?” Jack asked walking over.  
“Nothing out of the ordinary.”  
“What about the light? Power surges?” jack asked falling back into a chair.  
“Nothing from us.” She answered eyes never leaving the screen. “There was an electromagnetic build-up around her, but I can’t see how she caused it.” She said finally turning from the screens.  
“Same thing happened at the hospital, Jack.” Owen said, “Can’t be a coincidence.”  
“It’s her. I know it is.” Jack said.  
“Sorry, nothing that I’ve ever heard of.” Cali said shaking her head, not liking that she had been no help so far in this case, proving herself to be pretty much useless.  
“Okay. Let’s do some test. See who or what we are dealing with.” Jack said standing up.  
“I’m on it.” Owen said heading toward the Autopsy Bay. Cali headed over to her work station while Ianto moved to start working on fixing the rift manipulator, both knowing there was nothing they could do to help in this process. As Gwen brought Beth up from the room Cali was amused at the young woman’s reaction. She watched as she leaned over to look more closely at something, appearing to even sniff at it.  
Ianto leaned out from where he was working and barked at the girl, “We don’t sniff the sub-etheric resonator.” The woman apologized before moving on. They could hear soft mumbles coming from the autopsy bay as the four down there chatted.   
Suddenly Jack’s voice rang out, “Stop wasting our time. We know you’re an alien.” All three looked toward the sunken room. They didn’t hear Beth’s response but soon Jack was dragging her across the Hub and down to the vaults. When they came back up jack said something to Owen before going to his office leaving Beth in Gwen’s care once again. Owen walked off before coming back with some sort of chair and Jack immerged from his office with a containment box. From inside he pulled out a silver item.  
“You said we weren’t to use that again.” Tosh said.  
“It’s just a mind probe.” Jack responded somewhat harshly.  
“You remember what happened last time we used it?” Ianto asked before moving to set up the chair thing Owen had wheeled in.  
“That was different and that species has extremely high blood pressure.” Jack responded.  
“Oh, right. Their heads must explode all the time.” Ianto responded as Gwen walked back into the room.  
“Dissiliunty?” Cali asked thinking of the strange hyper active thin skinned creatures.  
“Yes.”  
“No offense but hitting them with a fly the wrong way can make their head explode.” Cali said thinking back to the three she had met on a search and rescue.  
“See?” Jack said glad someone understood.  
“Jack, you can’t do this. What if you’re wrong?” Gwen asked, “If she is human, it’ll kill her.”  
“I’m not wrong. We have to find out what she is.” He said as Ianto sat in the chair flexing his hands on the arms.  
“Take it easy, Jack.” Ianto said as she finished hooking the device up to her computer, “stop at the first sign of trouble.”  
“Or the first sign of exploding.” Ianto said, having now slid his wrists into the restraints.  
“Gwen bring her up.” Jack ordered wanting to get this over with. Gwen shook her head and left to get the prisoner. As she walked past Ianto started convulsing and making fake noises as if he were being electrocuted, making Cali stifle a giggle. “Hey!” Jack said pointing at him clearly not amused. Owen shook his head at Ianto as he stood up. When they brought her up Tosh helped strap her into the chair.  
“The probe drills down through your consciousness, so if there is anything hidden it will pop to the surface.” Jack explained.  
“Will it hurt?” she asked.  
“Yeah” well at least he’s honest Cali thought.  
“Your bedside manner’s rubbish.”  
“You should see his manners in bed. “ Gwen popped up, “they’re atrocious.” Suddenly she became aware all eyes shifted to her, “Apparently, so I’ve heard.” She said covering quickly.  
“Oh they are. I remember this one time..” Ianto started before Jack cut him off. Gwen moved to the woman and the process start Cali watched as jack fired off each question, waited for her to respond and Owen to tell him she was still physically ok. While everyone else looked worried Cali couldn’t help but cock her head in amazement, there weren’t many species that could stand this sort of pain but she had to agree with Jack that the woman was not human. Suddenly the alarm started to wail and the lights began to flicker. Suddenly everything stopped and the woman slumped forward. There was a beeping and her right arm began to transform and she sat up.  
“Who are you?” Jack asked, and Cali didn’t want to hear the answer. The woman answered in a foreign language. “Where are you from?” again she answered with the same words. “How do you like my boots?” and Cali knew not only what Jack was proving to the rest of the team but what they were dealing with and it wasn’t good. Jack walked over and grabbed the scanner from Tosh’s desk and ran it over her arm.  
“Jack, what is it? What is she saying?” Gwen asked.  
“Name, rank, serial number.” Cali answered blankly from the corner she had moved to. “That’s all she’s going to say.” They all turned to look at her.  
“How do you know?” Tosh asked.  
“Because she knows who she is and why she’s here.” Jack answered his eyes meeting Cali, “and so do I. Switch off the probe.” He said tossing the scanner to Ianto.  
“off.” Tosh said after w few key strokes. The woman’s arm returned to the way it was and she leaned forward gasping as she returned from her trance.  
After moving her back to the cells the team assembled in the board room. Jack quickly explained that there guest was a sleeper agent for an alien race that would take over a plant, destroy all and leave no survivors. Cali watched as they discussed what to do and decided to start by telling the woman. She watched as Jack and Gwen went down to the vaults before curling up on the couch. She gratefully took a cup of hot chocolate.  
“Wanna talk about how you knew?” he said sitting next to her.  
“Did a cleanup op from them.” She said, “I had only just become active, only been 18 a few weeks. We should up on the planet completely destroyed. There were two of them still there. We had enough technology with us that we were able to defeat them, but not without major casualties, and that was just from the two that were still there.” She looked up at him, “I’ve never heard of a full attack being stopped Ianto, I don’t know if it’s possible.”  
“If it is Jack will figure it out.” He said. Just then Jack and Gwen immerged from the vaults and discussion started on what to do.  
“We can’t keep her locked up Jack, it’s inhumane.” Gwen argued.  
“We can’t let her go, she’s too dangerous.” He replied. And so the discussion began. They decided to try to freeze her but in Cali’s gut she knew it wouldn’t help. They couldn’t be contained or stopped, only killed. She watched from the stairs as they loaded her into the cryo-chamber before sending her down to the morgue. Cali walked back to her small station, worry clawing at her stomach. Suddenly the lights all flickered and the alarms went off.  
“Can somebody tell me what the hell is going on?” jack demanded striding from his office. Cali leapt up and ran over to Gwen’s computer as she brought up the CCTV of the morgue and the drawer that Beth had been loaded into, now open and empty. Cali watched as the team scrambled to figure out why and where the alien had gone.  
“What about her husband?” Cali asked.  
“What?” Jack turned to look at her.  
“Her husband, she loves him, you say she has another agenda what if it’s to say good bye?”  
“Good thinking Gwen lets go get her back here… NOW!” Jack ordered striding from the Hub Gwen hot on his heels.  
“Good thinking.” Ianto said as he walked past.  
“Thanks.”  
About 30 minutes later Jack called into say they had gotten her when suddenly they could hear an explosion in the background that shook the hub. The found that a petrol tanker had been blown up to take out a pipe line just as Owen received reports that one Patrick Grainger had been murdered.  
“Who?” Tosh asked wondering why it was relevant.  
“Leader of the council, stabbed several times in the chest and once in the forehead. Sound familiar?”  
“Why would anyone want to kill him?” Gwen asked from over the Comms.  
“He’s also the city coordinator.” Ianto answered. ”Takes charge of the city in case of major emergencies. Has all the security protocols.” Cali looked at him in slight shock that he knew all of that from one name.  
“How do you know all that?” Owen asked.  
“I know everything.” He replied as if it were obvious, “and it says so on the bottom of the screen.”   
“Smart ass.” Cali muttered  
“Guys its starting.” Jack informed the Hub just before there was a high pitched screeching and all communications went down.  
“What was that?” Owen demanded.  
“Looks like they shut down the telephone network Cali replied.  
“Tosh can’t you just hook something up?” the young doctor demanded.  
“No, I can’t just hook something up. The entire telephone network is down.” She replied.  
“What about mobile connection?” Cali looked at him as if he were stupid; did he really just say that?  
“The. Entire. Telephone. Network. Is. Down.” Tosh repeated letting each word punctuate into his brain.  
“Mobiles Land lines, tin cans with bits of strings. Everything. Absolutely everything. No phones, phones all broken.” Ianto said walking up. “Hello? Anyone there” he asked lifting his hand as if it were a phone. “No because the phones aren’t working.” He said hoping maybe sarcasm would get through the doctors thick skull.  
“What about we try…” Owen started.  
“There is no way of getting in touch with Jack. No way!” Tosh said exasperated. Cali looked over at Ianto who rolled his eyes. Suddenly they all heard a radio static.  
“Tosh, Owen, can you hear me?” Jacks voice came in through the radio.  
“Jack!” Tosh said rushing over to the old CB. “Thank God. What happened?”  
“There’s a cell. It’s active. Four including Beth, two are dead. We’re tracking the last guy now.”   
“How are the other two dead?” Cali asked.  
“Killed them self for the cause,” they could hear the disgust in Jack’s tone; “if we can get to the last one before he does anything we can stop this.”  
“What can I do?” Tosh asked.  
“He’s headed for an abandoned farm just outside the city. I need to know what out there.” They all moved to their computers to find something useful.  
“Where’s he going? There’s nothing there.” Owen said.  
“Nothing on the surface.” Tosh confirmed.  
“This is as far back as they could go.” Ianto said reading from a book from the archives. “There used to be a coal mine in the cliff. The army sealed it off in the ‘40s. Doesn’t say why.”  
“Let me see if I can get into the military files.” Tosh said as they all crowed around her desk. “Come on guys. That wasn’t even difficult. You disappoint me” She said after a few key strokes. It was almost obscene how fast she had done it.  
“It’s almost obscene what you do to security systems.” Ianto said, voicing Cali’s thoughts.  
“Oh god.”  
“What is it?” Jack asked.  
“The mineshaft. The military are using it for storage. Nuclear warheads. Ten of them. No bodies supposed to know not even us. Please tell me you can stop this”  
“Going as fast as we can. If we don’t, we won’t feel a thing. We’re all at the center of the blast radius.”  
“That’s comforting.” Cali spat out. She did not come back to the past only to die two days later.  
“Come on, have a little faith! With a dashing hero like me on the case, how can we fail?”  
“He is dashing you have to give him that.” Ianto said.  
“And what if they can’t stop it?” Owen asked  
“They’ll stop it.” Tosh said trying to convince everyone, including herself, of this.  
“Yeah, but if they can’t?”  
“Then it’s all over.” Cali said dropping onto the couch know there was nothing she could do.  
“Let’s all have sex.” Owen said. The other three stared at him in disbelief.  
“And I thought the end of the world couldn’t get any worse.” Ianto said before turning away. They all sat in silence waiting to hear from Jack. More than an hour went by before jack and Gwen walked in with Beth.  
“All safe.” Jack said. Owen walked down to the Autopsy bay followed by Gwen, and Tosh followed Jack into his office, while Ianto went out to check on the SUV. Soon Gwen headed up to where Beth was waiting. A few minutes later they immerged, Beth holding the long blade from her arm against Gwen’s throat. Instinctively they all drew their weapons and pointed them at the duo. The bad feeling in Cali’s gut coming to a peak.  
“I won’t let you freeze me.” She hollered out to the team. “I’ll kill you all.”  
“Let her go! Let her go!” Jack shouted.  
“No! Wait, wait, wait, wait, and don’t shoot!” Gwen said trying to waive them back, “It’s a trick, she won’t hurt me! She won’t hurt me.”  
“Move away from her now!” Tosh yelled.  
“Everybody, calm down.” Jack hollered. “Beth, you don’t; want to do this. Let Gwen go.”  
“I’ll kill her first, than all of you, than the rest of your miserable species.” Beth yelled and Cali cursed that she couldn’t get a better shot.  
“Beth, please.” Gwen begged, “they will kill you. You have proved to be better than that. You helped us to stop the invasion. You can be human. Please, Beth.”  
“Not human enough.”  
“Beth” Gwen pleaded.  
“Good bye Gwen.” As she drew her arm back Cali squeezed the trigger, aiming the bullet straight at the throat seconds before the rest of the team riddled her chest with holes. As Owen and Jack rushed up to Gwen Cali holstered her gun and went outside needing to feel the ocean breeze.  
“You ok?” Ianto asked coming to stand next to her.  
“Fine, I just wish we could have done it sooner, before Gwen got attached.” She said coldly.  
“That was never an option; Gwen was attached from the moment she walked into the hospital.”  
“For that I’m sorry.” She turned to look at him, “is there any way I could get something stiff to drink?”  
“Yeah let’s go.” With that he led her down a few blocks to a small pub for a pint.


	5. Apartment Hunting

Cali woke with a start as she landed face first on the floor. With a groan she pushed herself up into a sitting position. She had once again rolled off the couch and ruined the best dreams she had ever had. Groaning she pulled herself up and grabbed clothes for the day from the cabinet where she was keeping them and headed down to the showers. She grimaced at her reflection, her right cheek was red from where it had connected with the floor, and the middle was starting to bruise. Shaking her head she stepped into the shower. She washed the sleep away and changed into a pair of black acid wash jeans and a turquoise tank top. Making her way back to the hub she wondered if Ianto was in yet so she could get one of his hot chocolates with just a dash of coffee to help her finish waking up.   
She looked around, slightly disappointed that she didn’t see him, and headed over to her desk. She nearly squealed in delight when she saw the steaming mug sitting by her computer. Instead she sat down and booted up the computer before cradling the mug in her hands. She heard the door to Jack’s office open, and turned to face whoever was coming out, knowing it was either Ianto or Jack.  
“Cali what happened to your face?” Ianto asked concern in his eyes.  
“Fell off the couch,” she said scowling into her mug.  
“Are you ok?” he asked walking back over to the coffee maker. She nodded her head and started turning back to her computer as Jack walked out.  
“What happened to you?” he asked.  
“She fell off the couch.” Ianto said, starting to make the coffee for the rest of the team.  
“We should find you a flat,” Jack said starting over.  
“Was already looking.” She said turning back to start scanning the ads. Soon Tosh was coming in followed by Gwen and Owen about ten minutes later.  
“Tosh what are we looking at today?” Jack asked.  
“Nothing on the predictor should be pretty quiet.” She said scanning over the equations.  
“Jack you mind if I head out and steal Tosh?” Cali yelled over, getting frustrated looking for flats on the computer. Over the past week, Tosh and her had become fast friends.  
“Keep your Coms on.” He said absently.  
“Where are we going?” Tosh asked as they headed for the invisible lift.  
“I need you to help me find a flat, I fell off the couch again this morning.” Cali said with a grimace as they stepped on.  
“Again?”  
“Yeah.”

For the next several hours they walked through Cardiff searching for a flat. They found several in the near immediate vicinity of the Hub but they were all much too big for one person, have three or four bedrooms, and also being far outside of the budget Cali had set. Wandering out farther they found a few more flats that were within budget, but if it was in a decent neighborhood they weren’t more than a single room, and if they were, both girls agreed that none of the guys would let her live there. As they left the last one they weren’t very shocked to find cops outside.  
“Didn’t know a domestic was a case for Torchwood.” PC Andy Davidson said, barley keeping the distaste from his voice, besides Gwen the small Asian woman was the only Torchwood member he could stand.   
“It’s not; this is Cali-Ann Manson, new Torchwood recruit. We’re looking for a flat.” Tosh said, though she didn’t really get to talk to the blonde PC very often, she found him amusing and charming when they did meet.  
“I wouldn’t look for one in these part, out here nearly every day, you’re better off going smaller in a better neighborhood.”  
“Well thanks for the advice, and it was very nice meeting you.” Cali said before looping her arms through Tosh’s and leading the way back to the Hub. Once they were about a block away she turned to look at her friend, “Who was that?”  
“Gwen’s old partner she used to be on the police force.” Tosh said, with one of her small shy smiles.  
“Kind of cute.”   
“He’s been very helpful even though he doesn’t care for Torchwood, most cops don’t. They feel that we over step ourselves.”  
“Doesn’t mean he isn’t cute.”  
Tosh gave a small laugh, “Well I’m sure if you ask nicely Gwen will introduce the two of you.”  
“Now why would I do that? I have my eye on a prize and it isn’t a Welsh copper.”  
“You’re interested in someone?” Tosh was surprised, she had found the new comer to be completely focused and had only ever gone out with the team. She wondered where her new friend had found someone who caught her eye, “Who?”  
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” She said with a smile.  
“Try me, I catch aliens for a living.” Tosh gave a short laugh.  
“What if I told you that it wasn’t a someone, but somebodies?” Cali couldn’t believe she was about to tell someone what she had been thinking, dreaming, about since her first week in this time.  
“More than one guy? Tell me… do I know either of them?”  
“You know both of them.”  
“Who!” Tosh nearly shouted, feeling excited for her friend, but desperate to know.  
“Ianto and Jack.” It was just over a whisper.  
“You…oh.” Tosh was shocked. She was used to people falling for the head of Torchwood, but she had to admit it was strange to her to hear Ianto’s name followed by the Captains. “W-what are you going to do?”  
“Nothing, there’s nothing I can do. Don’t worry Tosh,” she gave her a reassuring smile, “I’m a big girl. I can handle myself just fine.”  
“Well, on another subject what are we going to do for a flat for you?” Tosh asked continuing the walk to the Hub.  
“I have no idea.” Cali said with a laugh.

They stopped for a small lunch and grabbed a few things from the store before going back to the Hub. When they walked in things were as slow as when they left, evident by the fact that Ianto was in the tourist office restocking the pamphlets.  
“Any luck?” he asked looking up too see the two when they walked in.  
“None.” Cali said with a sigh. Even though they had decided to stop and pick up a few things they had found on sale for if and when they did find a place. They both headed into the Hub. As they walked in Cali dropped the bags onto the couch, planning to take them down to where Ianto said she could store her stuff, before heading to her station for the rest of the boring night.

ONE WEEK LATER

Cali dropped onto the couch gratefully taking the glass of wine from Tosh; they had gone out again that day after work to look for an apartment, still with no luck. Though they had gotten a few other interesting suggestions that had them deciding to take either Jack or Ianto with them next time they ventured out.  
“I never thought finding a place would be so hard.” Cali complained before sipping the bitter sweet liquid.  
“Or that men could be such sleaze balls.” Tosh replied.  
“I should have kicked his ass, and the cops should have written it off as public service.” She took another sip of her wine before dropping her head back, “Are we ever going to find a place?”  
“Truthfully I’m starting to doubt it.” Tosh shook her head, “I don’t remember it being that hard to find a place when I moved here from London.”  
“That’s just it you were moving here from London, you had everything you needed, or most of it. I’m moving from the 52nd century, I own nothing, kind of hinders my budget.”  
“True, too bad you can’t stay some place till you save up a bit more money so you could buy everything AND afford a nicer place.”  
“Yeah, someplace other than the Hub.” Cali said with a laugh.  
“You know what… that is a good idea.” Tosh sat up and looked at her new friend, “Why don’t you stay here till you find a place?”   
“I don’t know Tosh, I don’t wanna intrude.” Cali said, though she had to admit she wouldn’t mind sharing a place even temporarily with Tosh, she even had to admit they had become very good friends in the last month. And willing she would scream that she would do anything to move out of the Hub, to not have to wake up in the mornings and see those two Adonises together. Not that they were like overtly physical with each other, but then again they didn’t have to be. Just a brush of fingers as they passed each other a coffee mug, and you felt like you had just walked in on them having sex.   
“Really, I mean we hang out all the time, I have a huge place that I have no one to share it with, come on it’ll be fun.” Tosh had turned to face her now, eyes gleaming in excitement.  
“Ok,” Cali couldn’t help the grin that spread over her face, “I’ll have the boys help me bring that stuff over tomorrow after work.”  
“You know you can always stay the night in your new room” Tosh laughed, “I have the spare room all made up already.”  
“No, I’ll go back to the Hub tonight, that way I can get the few things I have out and about packed away.” She finished the wine that Tosh had poured before slipping her jacket on, “I will see you tomorrow.” She said with a smile over her shoulder. The nice thing about Tosh’s flat was that it was only a short walk of about 5 blocks to the hub. It let Cali feel like she was still keeping in shape. After spending her whole life in the military she felt as if she had been slacking off the past month. She had been contemplating talking to either Jack or Ianto to see if there was someplace she could go to get some sort of training in, especially back into the hand to hand. She strictly believed in the saying of if you don’t use it you lose it, and she refused to lose her years of training. Though she had to admit, besides the one on base back home she had never before seen a firing range as nice as the Torchwood one. Seeing Ianto’s car parked outside, Cali decided it was best to take the Tourist office, instead of the lift, that way hopefully the boys would hear the alarm and become decent. To her surprise she met Ianto as he stepped off the lift coming into the office, “nice night?” she asked raising her eye brow.  
“How was yours? Any luck?” he asked avoiding the question with a small smirk.  
“In away, would you be willing to help move everything tomorrow?”  
“Of course.” This time his smile turned warm.  
“Then I will see you tomorrow.”  
“Are you going to tell me where?”  
“Nope, I’ll show you tomorrow” she said with a smile before the doors closed behind her. The ride down was short, so she made sure to drop her eyes as she wasn’t completely positive Jack would be decent, “I’m back!”  
“So I heard, find anything this time?” he asked coming from the kitchenette. Cali was surprised to see that he was not only decent but was actually in pants.  
“In a way, if you’ll help me tomorrow you can even see it.” She said moving to pull a set of pajamas from the filing cabinet.  
“I get to see anything else?” he asked with a wink as he headed toward his office.  
“Every night in your dreams, now be a good boy so I can change and don’t bother with the CCTV,” she hit a few buttons on her left cuff, “they are off for the night” she said with a smile.  
“You know I might actually miss having you here.” He said, his voice serious.  
“You could fix that you know.” She said wondering if he would actually take the advice she was about to give.  
“Yeah how’s that? Get on my knees and beg you to stay?”  
“Not like it would be the first time you were on your knees tonight,” she smirked at the look of almost shock that swept across his face, “but no, you could move out.”  
“After the trouble you had finding a place? I think not.”  
“Jack, you have someone who you could just move in with, if you were willing to give up even an Iota of control. You act as if you have no one here for you and that you have to be alone, Jack, you have someone who cares about you. Just think about it.” She said before moving down into the archives where she had been storing her stuff. Jack watched her walk away and wondered if she was right.

Again the rift monitors showed nothing for the day so around lunch they decided to take an hour to move Cali out of the hub.  
“So are you going to tell us where this place is?” Jack asked as they put the last bag into the back of the SUV. Cali wasn’t sure how she felt about the fact the all of her belongs fit into the back of the SUV with enough room for all of them to still ride in it.  
“You’ll see when we get there. Now come on.” She said sliding in the back with Jack and Ianto in the front. She directed them the five blocks to Tosh’s.  
“Isn’t this is the same place Toshiko lives?” Jack asked as they all got out.  
“Yup here’s the key it’s on the first floor number three.” She said handing Jack the keys.  
“But that is Tosh’s flat.” Ianto said with a frown.  
“Yup.” She said with a smile as she started to unload the trunk.  
“You’re living with Tosh?” Jack asked looking at her like she was crazy.  
“Yeah.” She didn’t understand why they were acting like it was such a big deal.  
“Cali, why don’t you just stay in the Hub till we find you your own place?” Jack said walking back toward the car, “and after that little talk we had last night you can even take the bunk under my office.”  
“What talk?” Ianto said frowning at the two of them, even as they ignored him.  
“Jack its fine really, me and Tosh talked about it, and besides no offense Jack but it’s a little creepy that you live under the floor at work. I mean seriously out of all of us you’re the only one who can’t die and yet you have NO life. Now if you boys don’t mind I would like to move into my new flat.” She said before leading the way to the door.


	6. To The Last Man

When Cali woke up that Friday Tosh was already up and nearly ready to go.  
“Today the big day?” she asked yawning. Ianto and Jack had explained what would happen that day the night before.  
“Yes.” Tosh answered with a bright smile.  
“Well go on, I’m sure I can make it to the Hub on my own.” Cali said with a smile, not wanting to keep her friend and flat mate waiting, “and tell them not to wait for me.”  
“Well don’t be late, not that Jack really cares if any of us are.”  
“Never, now go.” Cali said with a laugh before jumping in the shower. She walked into the Hub about 30 minutes later just as everyone was crowding into the med bay. She stood next to Gwen as they watched Owen administer a shot into the side of his neck. Owen stood with his fingers on the dead pulse for a few seconds waiting for the heart to start. Cali could see the worry in Tosh’s eyes when the young man didn’t come too immediately. Quickly Owen grabbed the defibrillator paddles and gave Tommy two quick jolts. Quickly Ianto went to help Owen hold the soldier down as Tosh tried to calm him. Once the initial shock wore off, Ianto left to make everyone their normal beverage and Cali moved back to her desk, leaving Tosh and Owen to deal with the WWI soldier with Gwen watching in fascination. Soon they were all seated around the board room table. Almost immediately Tommy noticed the cute lavender dress Tosh had worn that day. Cali sat back sipping at her hot chocolate as everyone chatted idly. Soon Owen was leading Tosh and Tommy Back down for more tests.  
Cali watched as Gwen went into Jack’s office so he could once again explain to her why Tommy was with Torchwood. Soon after Tosh appeared with a newly dressed Tommy at her side and headed up to the office. Almost immediately all four came out.   
“Jack? Got any more of those pretty boys in the freezer?” Gwen asked. Cali rolled her eyes, couldn’t the woman be happy with what she had?  
“Hands off missy, Tosh got there first.” Cali smiled as she saw how happy her friend was.  
“Thanks for holding the fort while I’m out.” Tosh said to Owen as her and Tommy headed for the door.  
“No worries, have fun. Be careful.” Cali smiled at the older brother tone in his voice.  
“Where are you off?” Gwen asked.  
“Drink, film, maybe a pizza….” Tosh answered turning to check with Tommy.  
“Oh, Very nice, very nice.” Jack and Gwen said together turning to look at each other.  
“I’ll be on the mobile if you need me.” Tosh said at the sudden awkwardness.  
“Have a lovely time.” Gwen said to their retreating backs.  
“Bye.” Jack said as they both plastered fake grins on their faces.  
“He’s a frozen soldier from 1918.” Gwen said through her smile.  
“Nobody’s perfect.” Jack replied with a shrug. As they both returned to his office Ianto following close behind. Cali turned back to her computer to continue on her files.  
Soon Gwen walked out with a determined look on her face.  
“Where are you going?” Ianto asked.  
“St. Teilo’s Hospital.” She responded as if it should have been obvious, “and bloody cheer up, will you?”  
Cali turned to look at Ianto and had to admit he did look a bit blue, “What’s up?” she asked walking toward the Welshman.  
“Just thinking of the fact that no one lives to ripe old age at Torchwood.” He said with a frown.  
“Ah well, things change.” Cali said with a small smile trying to block the images of all her new friends dead on the ground around her the way her team had been.  
“Yeah you’re right.” He said trying to muster a smile.  
“Come on, let’s go pick up lunch for the rest of the team.” She said sliding her arm through his.  
“Sounds good.” He said a real smile touching his lips.  
A while later Jack came out of his office, “where is everyone?” he asked the medic.  
“Gwen went to the hospital and Cali and Tea Boy went to grab lunch.” He finished just as Jack’s phone rang.  
“Hello…. Knocking it down?.... right I’m on my way.” Owen watch those monitors that was Gwen she said that they are knocking down the hospital I’m heading over their fill Ianto and Cali in on everything when they get back.’ The captain said heading for the door.  
“Right.” Owen turned back to the monitors about 10 minutes later Jack had arrived at the hospital.  
“Anything yet?”  
“Nothing. This is more Tosh’s thing than mine want me to give her a call?”  
“Not yet. Just keep watching.” A few minutes later Ianto and Cali came in with food.  
“Jack and Gwen went to the hospital they are knocking it down, Jack thinks this might be what triggers this thing to happen.” Owen said.  
“Right, here I’ll take over the monitors.” Cali said forgetting about the food in her hand.  
“Great because I can barely tell heads nor tails of it.” Owen said sliding out of Tosh’s chair so Cali could take over.  
“Guys call Jack, these things are spiking.” Cali called over her shoulder a few minutes later.  
Immediately Owen pulled out his phone, “Jack, you see anything? Cause we’ve got a little mountain range at this end.”  
“Yeah we’ve got a few ghosts here. Gwen, are you ok? Gwen?” suddenly the tension in the Hub soared when the young Welshwoman didn’t answer.  
“I’m fine.” Everyone sighed in relief as her voice filled their ears.

Soon Jack and Gwen were back at the Hub.  
“I think it’s time to call Tosh and Tommy back to the Hub.” Jack said as he glanced over the rift readings and pulled out his cell phone.   
“Jack.” Tosh answered on the second ring slightly out of breath.  
“Tosh I’m sorry, but they are tearing down the hospital and its triggering the time shift, we need you to bring Tommy back to the Hub.” Jack said, he had hoped that the time shift would have waited till after Tosh had gone.  
“We’re on our way.”  
The team sat in silence till the couple had returned and they all went up to the Board room. Immediately Jack started to bring everyone to the same page. “Demolishing the hospital is what triggers the time shift.” He said as he started laying pictures out.  
“So don’t demolish it.” Owen said wishing he could save his colleague from the pain he was sure she was about to suffer.  
“Too late. It’s already started.”  
“What happened next?” Gwen asked.  
“Two different times should never exist simultaneously.” Jack said as Tommy looked to Toshiko for comfort, Cali wished she could help the two stay together. “You want to be in 1918 or now. Not both.”  
“So when 1918 becomes fully manifest …” Tosh started.  
“It’s really going to screw us up.” Owen finished as the severity of the situation settled on the group.  
“Okay.” Jack grabbed a piece of paper knowing he would have to give a visual image to them all. “Linear time. He said showing them the UN marred piece of paper. Suddenly he scrunched the paper into a ball.” Screwed up time.” He said tossing the ball to Owen. “Imagine your life as a straight line, from birth to death. Now try drawing that line on the paper without straightening it out.”  
“It’s impossible.” Gwen said and Cali wanted to roll her eyes, let’s state the obvious she thought.   
“That’s why we’ve got to stop it.” He said before leaving the room with Owen hot on his heels followed by Tosh and Tommy. Cali let Gwen follow the rest out as she slowly followed to the main Hub. “Ianto, is that box doing anything yet?” Jack yelled out.  
“Still locked.”  
“Okay we need to find out how fast the time shift is happening, get some idea when it’s gonna complete. Tosh, Owen, go to the hospital we need reading.” Cali had to admit she was getting slightly turned on by how easily he seemed to give commands. “Cover the place with rift monitors. Gwen go through the files see if there’s anything we missed. Cali go scout the surrounding area, let’s make sure this thing isn’t going to spread.” They all headed out to do their assignments, Tosh stopping to give Tommy a quick nod of assurance.  
Cali had Tosh and Owen let her off three blocks from the hospital figuring to give it a three radius block? and slowly make her way in. as she stepped into the hospital she could? hear OR heard? the rapid beeping of the rift monitors.

Back at the Hub the canister on Jack’s desk unlocked emitting a glow. Inside he found a stack of papers with instructions.  
“Instructions?” Ianto asked with a small smile as he entered the office.  
“Yeah.” Jack glanced up from what he was reading. “For Tommy.” What he read on the next page had him stopping for a second and glancing back up to Ianto, “and Toshiko.” Immediately he called the three in the field back to the Hub to once again meet in the board room.   
Once everyone was there he started, “In 12 hours, there’ll be a brief moment when both times exist, before the time shift completes when Tommy can be both here now and in 1918. He needs to be in the hospital ready to step from one time to another.”  
“So he’d be right inside the time shift?” Gwen asked. Even Cali was wondering how this was supposed to work.  
“And he can close the fracture that caused it.” Jack answered.  
“And when the fractures closed?” Tommy asked from his seat at the opposite end of the table as Jack.  
“1918 will be back where it belongs...” Owen answered.  
“So will I.” everyone felt the sudden heaviness of the situation, “for good?” Tommy asked, wondering, almost hoping that there would be away for him to come back to Tosh.  
“Yeah.” Jack answered wish that for once he wouldn’t have to be the bearer of bad news. He watched as Tommy turned to Tosh for help, who looked at him for a brief moment before turning away knowing she couldn’t do anything for him. “You’re the only one who can do this. We brought you from 1918 to now and when you go back to 1918 your life will be like a thread, stitching time back together again.” Jack said hoping the young soldier would understand just how badly they needed him.  
“A stitch in time.” Tommy said wondering if it was as glorious as it sounded.  
“How?” Tosh asked, she didn’t know if she could physically lead him to his death even if it meant saving the world.  
Jack grabbed the gold Item sitting on the table and held it up, this is a rift manipulator. It’s basically a key. Once you’re inside the time shift, you can close the door behind you.”  
“And that’s it? I’m gone?”  
“Will it kill him?” Cali asked, knowing how risky these things could be and wasn’t sure if even she cared about the world enough to end the young soldiers life.  
“No. It won’t harm him at all.” Jack answered. Just then the door slid opened and Ianto came in carrying a box. “Tommy, stay with Ianto. Tosh, with me. The rest of you get to work.” Jack said as he led the small Asian girl back to his office. Cali followed Gwen and Owen back out to the Hub. Soon Ianto and Tommy came back out.  
“Where’s Toshiko?” Tommy asked setting the box down.  
“Still in with Jack” Cali said offering a soft smile.  
“So, tomorrow morning. What time is it now?” he asked. Suddenly everyone was looking at their watches.  
“Ten to nine.” Ianto said.  
“So what do we do till then?” he asked. Suddenly the team all looked at each other. What do you do the night before you send a soldier back to war? “You don’t know, do you?” he asked in near disbelief.  
“What would you like to do?” Gwen asked.  
“The night before we went over the top, we used to play cards.” Tommy said, he wasn’t really sure he hadn’t been awake this long in 3 months or 90 years depending on how you looked at it. “Write letters. Have a drink if anyone had some.” He said moving to sit down.  
“Well, we could do that.” Owen said turning to look at his fiancé.  
“Yeah.” Ianto turned to get some cards from his desk.  
“But you’re not coming with me.” Tommy said looking at them almost accusingly, “I’m going on my own.” Tosh and Jack came back into the room with tosh holding the key.  
“We were just wondering what Tommy should do tonight.” Gwen said turning toward their leader.  
“He can come home with me.” Tosh cut in before Jack could do more than open his mouth. Everyone turned to look at her. “He’s not our prisoner, he doesn’t have to stay here. Does he?” she asked Jack, challenging him to say otherwise.  
“No. if that’s what you both want.” He said turning his gaze away from Tosh to look at Tommy. Tosh gave Tommy an encouraging smile when he turned to look at her.   
“I’ll stay here tonight.” Cali said sending Tosh a smile.  
“Tomorrow morning, 6:30.” Jack said before turning to go back into his office. Cali helped Ianto pull the old pillow and blanket back from where they were kept and made herself her normal bed on the couch watching as Ianto made his way into Jack’s office. She couldn’t help but watch the two of them through the glass. They talked with Ianto across the room hands in his pockets while Jack kept his back turned rifling through paper work on his desk. Soon Ianto started to slowly make his way over to Jack’s desk and sat on the edge, forcing Jack to visually notice him. What every Jack said to him next caused Ianto to lean down and pull him into the most searing kiss Cali had ever witnessed, leaving her breathless just from watching. She crawled into bed and rolled over knowing the next day was going to be hard on everyone.  
The next morning came faster than anyone expected and as soon as Tommy and Tosh arrived the quickly made their way to the hospital.  
“You know we can’t be here when it happens.” Jack said turning to face Tommy. All of a sudden the alarms started blaring and the building shook. Tommy walked away from the group his hand going to his head, tosh following right behind him.  
“Come on.” She said leading him from the room. Everyone following.  
Abruptly Tommy came to a stop. “Shh.’ He said as the group could pick up the sound of singing.  
“We’re safe for now.” Jack said setting a reassuring hand on the younger man’s shoulder. Just as he finished the ghost of a Nurse came around the corner. Tommy started to follow her, the team close behind.  
“Are you all right?” Tosh asked but got no reply other than Tommy breaking into a light run. “Tommy!” she called wanting to comfort him but knowing she couldn’t.  
“Where is she?” he asked as they came into a large empty room. “In 1918.” He said answering his own question. “Torchwood took me.”  
“Tommy.” Tosh called needing to bring him back to the present time. Suddenly he ran from the room. “Tommy!” Tosh called running after him.  
“Stay here.” Jack commanded as he followed. The team watched helplessly as the three ran down the hall. Soon Jack reappeared. “She’s talking to him, but we only have two minutes.” The entire building started shaking around them about a minute later. As they all headed down the hallway Tosh came running at them.   
“GO, GO.” She ordered and they all turned on their heels to run in the opposite direction. At the end of the hall Tosh turned to look back.  
“Come on!” Jack instructed pulling her out by her arm. Cali slid her arm around Tosh in Comfort as they drove back to the Hub. Inside they found the alarms blaring.  
“What’s happening?” Gwen said setting down the case she was carrying.  
“I don’t know.” Tosh said moving to her computer, forcing her emotions to the back of her mind.  
“The time shift hasn’t stopped.” Jack said. “Toshiko, show me the city now!” on the map they could all see small white dots popping up one after another.  
“It’s spreading out from the hospital.” Tosh said.  
“What they hell are they?” Gwen asked.  
“Chunks of the past erupting into the present.” Jack answered.  
“They’re everywhere.” Owen said turning from his own screen.  
“What about the rift key?” Gwen asked.  
“Tommy isn’t using it.” Cali answered, wondering what had gone wrong.  
“Why not?” Owen asked.  
“I don’t know.” Tosh said, her fingers scrambling across her key board. “Because he’s just gone back to 90 years ago?” she said incredibly, “Because he’s shell-shocked?”  
“One of us will have to go back.” Jack said looking at Owen before heading back toward the door.  
“Jack, wait!” Owen called. “You’ll be stuck in 1918. I’ve got an idea.” Quickly he moved everyone down to the Med Bay. “The time shifts are forcing the rift open. If we are quick we can use it to our advantage. A tiny amount should do” he said to himself as he pulled a rack of blood samples from a cupboard. “We know Tommy’s exact location in time. We send an image of you through to him.” He said.  
Suddenly jack understood, “I can go into Tommy’s mind.”  
“As a psychic projection, yes. If we’re lucky.”  
“And Tommy will be able to see you.” Gwen said.  
“I can make him use the key.” Jack responded moving toward Owen rolling his shirt up to expose his arm.  
“Let me do it.” Tosh said moment before Owen injected Jack. “He trusts me.”  
“Okay.” Jack nodded sliding off the table. Quickly they hooked tosh up to the monitors.  
“How long have I got?” Tosh asked.  
“Minutes.” Owen answered gently.  
“You’ve got one shot, Tosh. That’s all.” Jack said next to her.  
“All right?” Owen asked ready with the injection. After a nod from Tosh he administered it and they were all forced to watch and wait and pray.  
“Tommy?” they heard her whispered voice, “It’s me. Toshiko…. I’m here to help you….no….do you know what it is? …. Tommy, it’s a key … you have to use it …. It’s all right …. No, you are not.” They all were slightly taken aback at the sudden harshness in her voice. “For the future, for me. Because you’re my brave handsome hero. Tommy, Use the key.” She gasped on the table just second before everything stabilized. As soon as she was off the table she moved out of the med bay and Cali watched as she folded and put away Tommy’s clothes in the box for the archives.   
“Let’s head home.” Cali said going over to her friend. Tosh gave a small nod as she slid her coat on.  
Jack came to the door of his office, “Hey.” He called out gently, “Thank you.” He said. Tosh gave a small curt nod before the two left. She was silent the whole drive home and when they got there and sat on the couch she couldn’t help the tears that fell, and Cali pulled her friend into her arms and held her as she cried for the man that she had loved before sending to his death.  
“He trusted me. Right till the end.” She said through her tears.  
“Because you were strong.” Cali answered brushing her bangs from her face. “Everything is still here because of you.”   
Tosh shook her head, “Because of Tommy. Let’s hope we’re worth it.”


	7. Drunken Nights

With no rift predictions for the next several days Jack decided to give his team the weekend off and sent them all home early that Friday, knowing that they could all use it. He watched as Owen helped Gwen into her jacket before the two left hand in hand, while he wasn’t shocked the two of them had gotten together after Gwen’s break-up with Rhys he found the almost tender actions slightly amusing. He switched his attention over to Tosh and Cali as they headed for the door.  
“What are you two up to tonight?” he asked making his way out to the main portion of the Hub looking for Ianto.  
“We are going to go out tonight.” Cali said sliding into her leather jacket, flipping her hair out of the collar.  
“Well have fun, and be careful” he said somewhat distracted, where was he?  
“If you’re looking for Ianto he’s done in the archives.” Tosh said with a smile.  
“Uh … oh right, thanks.” Jack gave a small smile before heading down to the basement. Both Girls shook their heads before heading out. Jack wondered down to the maze that was the Torchwood archives in search of the residential tea boy. He found him somewhere back in the 1800’s sorting through one of the drawers. “How do you do that without falling asleep?” Jack asked leaning against the filing cabinet at the end.  
Ianto flicked his gaze up at the Captain before turning back to his work, “It’s actually quite fascinating, and reading the files as I go through them is what allows me to be completely honest every time I tell one of you that I know everything.” He flashed Jack a grin.  
“Well, Mr. Know-it-all, why don’t you let that sit till Monday and we can go out.”  
“Till Monday?”  
“Yeah, I just sent every one home early for the weekend, I figure we could all use a break.” He walked over, knowing he would have to physically remove the Welshman from the archives. “So now I suggest we repeat that dinner and a movie we had last month.”  
“Oh yeah?” Ianto knew that he would give in in the end, but until then he wasn’t going to fold under Jack Harkness’s sexy grin and sparkling eyes.  
“Unless, of course you would rather stay here with the dusty files instead of going back to your place with me and-” Jack leaned in to whisper a very explicit suggestion into his ear. Ianto couldn’t help the sudden racing of his pulse as he imagined the scene Jack had just laid out.  
“Well Sir,” he took a deep breath to try to steady himself, “I suggest we get an early start on the night.” With that the two men hurried from the Hub both keeping their hands in their pockets in fear of not making it out of the building.

Across town Cali dragged Tosh into one of Cardiff’s few night clubs. Ever since they had sent Tommy back to his time she could sense the cloud of depression that had settled over her friend, and she was determined to help that cloud to dissipate, and soon. The music was loud and the dance floor was crowded.  
“Come on.” She pulled her over to the bar where she shouldered her way in, “What’s your poison?” she asked Tosh.  
“I’m sorry?”  
“What do you drink?”  
“Oh, uh vodka lemonade,” she said eyeing the crowd wearily.   
“Right,” she leaned across the bar and let out a whistle to get the bartenders attention, “Vodka Lemonade and Pineapple Rum.” She hollered. She turned to Tosh who was standing next to her, eyes darting around the crowd. She leaned in, “Relax, everything will be fine. We’re going to get drunk, dance, and get hit on by drunken guys, just chill and let go, you need to have some fun. You know what we need to start this a little heavier,” she turned back to the bar and ordered two shots, she turned and handed one to Tosh along with her Vodka Lemonade, “Take this first.” She said with a grin before tossing back her own. She laughed as Tosh took the shot before giving her a face of pure disgust.  
“What was that?” she coughed out.  
“Tequila, chase it with your drink it’ll help.” They found a table back a little bit from the floor and sat down with their drinks, Cali knew she was going to have to get more than a shot and vodka into her friend before she would be out on the floor.

Even with the offer Jack had given Ianto to get him out of work, he had been serious about the dinner and a movie, though they started at Ianto’s favorite Cinema, the Electro; it was the only place that still played the old black and white silent movies the Welshman seemed to enjoy so much. While Ianto watched the film with the same amount of attention as he gave everything Jack took the time to watch the Welshman out of the corner of his eye. To everyone else, including Ianto who would look over every once in a while when the feeling of being watched became too much, it seemed that Jack was watching the movie. He smiled as Ianto leaned forward fully getting into the movie. He watched Ianto through the whole movie and as they walked from the theatre he did what Ianto only allowed at night, Jack slid his hand into Ianto’s.

Cali pulled Tosh into the second club of the night; both were starting a heavy buzz as they made their way to the bar. About half way to the bar Tosh stumbled forward as the crowd pushed at her back. She felt a hand gently grip her arm as she was steadied. She looked up into the blue eyes of PC Andy Davidson.  
“Thank you.” She yelled over the music.  
“No problem,” he said with a smile.  
“Tosh.” Cali yelled after turning to find her friend not directly behind her, “and PC Davidson. Join us for a drink.” She said grabbing both of their hands and dragging them through the crowd.

Jack and Ianto sat across from each other and a small table in the back of the restraint, the quiet hum of the violin whispering in their ears. While they ate they talked about work and both were able to extract small personal details from the other. Jack learning that Ianto had an older sister with a niece and nephew. Ianto learning that Jack hadn’t joined Torchwood willingly. After paying for dinner, they again walked out hand in hand and headed to Ianto’s flat. When they got there Ianto surprised Jack by pinning him to the door, his lips pressing against Jack’s. Slowly they made their way to Ianto’s bed, knocking several items from tables and pictures hung askew on the walls as they did. Jack pulled Ianto’s shirt open as they fell on the bed. Suddenly both of their forgotten com units rang in their ears.

When Cali and Tosh stumbled from the third bar of the night, they both leaned against the wall and each other giggling.   
“Do you know how to get home from here?” Cali asked, not really remembering where “here” was.  
“No clue…”Tosh giggled. Without thinking Cali half-hazardly slid the coms system into her ear and hit the call button on it… Jack had said that if she ever needed help that’s all she would have to do.

 

“Jack why don’t you take Tosh up, and I’ll work on getting Cali out.” Ianto said handing Jack the set of keys he could see sitting on top of Tosh’s purse before helping to slide their passed out co-worker into Jack’s arms before setting her purse on her stomach, “Her bedroom is to the right last door, Don’t ask how I know, I know everything.” Ianto answered the un-asked question before turning back to Cali.  
“I don’t want to go home.” She pouted sitting against the far door so Ianto couldn’t reach her.  
“Where do you want to go then?” maybe if he treated her like he did his stubborn niece and nephew he and Jack could get back to what they had been doing.  
“Not home.” God, could this woman be anymore sassy? Maybe if he could keep her distracted till Jack came back out Jack could get her through the other door.  
“Well, did you and Tosh have fun at least?” he asked changing tactics, crossing his arms above his head and resting them against the top of the SUV.  
“Mmhmmm, and can you keep a secret?” she asked starting to lean forward.  
Keep comin’ he thought, “Of course.”  
“Tosh likes Andy, Gwen’s old partner and he was there tonight, well not where you guys picked us up from but one of the others. I think we should hook the two up they are cute. But you wanna hear another secret?”  
“What?” in all truth Ianto didn’t care and the talk was starting to remind him of his sister’s teenage years.  
“I don’t wanna go home,” she said starting to crawl over the seat toward him, “I want to go with you and Jack.” She said before pouncing on him.  
Jack walked out of Tosh’s flat just in time to see Ianto fall back onto the small strip of grass, Cali riding him to the ground before pressing her lips and body to his. Jack stood shocked for a moment not sure if he should be pissed that a subordinate was kissing his man or if he should be turned on by two subordinates he found supremely attractive kissing. When he saw the slight panicked look on Ianto’s face he strode over the lawn and scooped Cali off of Ianto and into his arms. “JACK!” she squealed in delight wrapping her arms around his neck before kissing him with as much enthusiasm as she had been kissing Ianto with. This time Jack couldn’t deny it he was turned on, especially by the fact that he could taste Ianto on her lips. Still he gently pushed her away.  
“Cali, we need to get you inside and to bed.” He said trying to sound sensible but not out of breath.  
“Will you two come with?” she asked reaching out and pulling Ianto closer to them by his tie. Jack’s eyes shot to Ianto’s in confusion not sure if he had missed something.  
“Cali, your home.” Jack said trying to understand what was going on in her mind.  
“But I don’t want to go home, I want to go back with you two. I want to know how it felt that night, that horrible, horrible wonderful night none of us will remember. I want to know what it’s like to be pressed between both of you. It’s all I’ve wanted since then, you two are all I can think about,” she said reminding the boys of her first night, “Don’t you want to remember Jack?” she asked.  
“Ianto help me here.” Jack said pleading. In all honesty now that she said it like that he would like to know what it would be like, but he wouldn’t do anything to ruin what him and Ianto had started… not even that. The two men looked at each other, both of their minds coming to the same conclusion at the same time. Soon the three were on their way to Ianto’s flat.

Cali woke the next morning with what felt like a spike pulsating at her temples, she rolled and buried her face in the pillow, freezing at the unknown and yet familiar scent that coated it. Quickly she rolled back over and opened her eyes. At the same moment Jack, who had been waiting for her to wake up, opened the drapes. The light cut through Cali’s eyes and she gave out a mix between a scream and a groan. She pulled the pillow over her face before slowly opening her eyes to see Jack standing next to the bed grinning.  
“Jack where the hell am I and why am I nake-“Cali stopped the memory of the night before flooding her mind, “oh no.” She rolled back over burring her face into the pillow in pure humiliation.  
“IANTO! She’s awake.” Jack yelled out.  
“Do you have to be so loud?” Cali moaned into the pillows.  
Ianto walked in caring a glass of water and a small bottle of aspirin, shaking his head at Jack’s near cruelty, he walked over and sat on the side of the bed setting the glass and the side table, “Jack your coffee is on the table.” Ianto said, his eyes clearly saying ‘get out’ “Cali?” he said gently setting his hand on her shoulder. This had been his only concern about the night before, what Cali would think and do when she sobered up.  
“Ianto, please tell me that this is my mind playing tricks on my and I didn’t say or do those things last night.” She pleaded peaking up at him from the pillows.  
Sighing he got up and closed the curtains again, “Don’t worry about it, you had had a lot to drink last night.” She sat up clutching the duvet to her chest “Here this will help,” he said handing her the glass and two aspirin, “We all say things we don’t mean when we get a pint or ten in us.”  
Cali saw the worry in his eyes and needed to reassure him, “Ianto, what I said last night,” she paused and took a deep breath not sure how to word it best, “It’s not that I didn’t mean it because I meant every word of it. I just never intended to say it out loud.”  
“What do you mean?”  
“Just forget it, is there any way I can take a shower? Clean up?” Cali didn’t want to do the whole heart to heart thing, she wasn’t good at it.  
“Sure right down the hall door on the left.” Ianto said standing up.  
“Great.” She crawled from the bed, wrapping the sheet around her. Jack came strolling back down the hallway as she reached the door. “You Jack Harkness, are an ass.”  
“Head hurt?” he asked with a smirk.  
“Yes…. Think you could be less of an ass and go get my spare clothes from the SUV?”  
“I could… maybe.” He said with a shrug before continuing to the bedroom. He leaned against the door way and watched as Ianto quickly and efficiently straighten out the bedding. “Feeling better now?”  
“Not really.” He turned to look at him, worry and regret filling his eyes, “How is what happened last night any different from the first time? It wasn’t as if she was fully aware of her decisions.” He said dropping to sit on the end of the bed. While Ianto had to admit that he had enjoyed the night before, he felt like he had taken advantage of his friend and co-worker.  
“Jack, I thought I asked for you to get my clothes.” Cali said from the door way, her hand on her hip. In truth she wasn’t really upset, but she knew that she had to explain to Ianto that she was in no way mad at him or Jack, she knew this would be the hardest conversation she would ever have. She hated the whole let’s talk about our feelings bull shit. Jack turned and saw the look in her eyes and understood.  
“Going to get them now.” He said turning to leave the two of them alone. Cali walked over and knelt in front of Ianto.  
“Hey.” She said to pull his attention to her. She nearly wanted to cry at the look in his bright blue eyes. “Ianto, while, don’t get me wrong, last night I was intoxicated far past where I should have been, I also knew what I was getting into. What I said was true. I swear every time I close my eyes my mind goes into hyper drive, and let me tell you what my small brain came up with was nothing compared to the reality. The booze didn’t put words in my mouth, it just removed the thing that stopped them from coming out. What happened last night I have thought about like I said since that night, but I never wanted to get between you and Jack… well … not emotionally anyway.” She said hoping to get him to understand what she was saying.  
“You sure you’re ok?” he asked raising his blue eyes to her sparkling green ones.  
“Suga I’m better than ok.” She said with a wink making him laugh. Just then Jack walked back in with a duffle bag.  
“Here you go.” He said handing her the bag. Cali quickly retreated to the bathroom to get changed. “Feeling better?”  
“Much.” Ianto said.  
“So you guys think you could give me a ride back to the flat?” Cali asked coming back to the room.  
“Lunch first.” Jack said shrugging into his coat.  
“Sounds good.” She said sending both guys a smile.


	8. Adam

“Unlabeled Class D artifacts. Tosh, I need you to run a full check,” Jack said coming out of his office. “Cali, you can help.”   
“Happy to,” she smiled up from the paper work she was flipping through.  
“Adam, I know how much you love to audit.”  
“It’s gotta be done.”  
“If you could….”  
“Go through the investigation reports find out when they might have come through the rift.”  
“You ok with that?” Jack asked as Gwen came rushing in about ten minutes late after her short stay with her family in Paris.  
“I have been for the last three years.”  
“You’re late,” Jack said as he turned and saw Gwen. Cali snuck a smirk at Tosh, it seemed of late Gwen was the only one who couldn’t be late in Captain Jack’s books.  
“Yes, Paris was lovely, thank you!” she said hoping to brush it off, her eyes darting to find Owen. “Who the hell is this?” she asked looking at Adam. Everyone looked at her confused, they all knew Gwen could be absent minded at times, but to forget a whole person, was going a little far.  
Adam got up from his chair and made his way over to her setting his hand on her shoulder, “Just ‘cause that’s what I said to you on your first day. Remember?”  
“Sorry, couldn’t resist. Come here, you! Good to see you.” The entire Hub sighed in relief.  
“Hey Tosh you’re looking good.” Gwen said moving farther into the Hub.

Grabbing her latest report Cali slid onto the couch next to Ianto, leaning against the arm of the couch. Being near him still sent thrills up her spine, and for some reason the vague smell of coffee that seemed to surround him seemed intoxicating to her.  
“Just doing a quick check, we had a rift activity two days ago, but nothing seems to have come through.” Tosh said coming back into the main area.  
“Could it have possibly scampered off before we got there?” Cali asked glancing up, “I mean it wouldn’t be the first time you nearly lost an intruder.” She said reminding them of when she first showed up.  
“As you said almost, and you still couldn’t elude my charm.” Jack said coming back up from the vaults.  
“Please, it was my shining personality that lead you right to me.” She replied cheekily. Soon the team was in full swing working on their own area. Cali looked up to see Adam come in behind Tosh and slide his arms around her. Cali smiled so glad that her friend was happy.  
That night Cali smiled as she watched all of her friends leave the Hub before crawling down into the bunker Jack had said she could have till she found her own place. On the way to the car Jack stopped and stared at the corner opposite the Hub.  
“Weevil sighting by the sewer in Rockall Street.” Ianto said heading for the passenger side. “Jack? Jack?” Ianto called out worried when his boss and lover didn’t respond.  
Jack turned back to look at him, “Can you see him?”  
“Who?” Ianto asked, worried that Jack maybe hallucinating or that for once in his life he actually was missing something. Jack turned back to the spot he had been staring at but still there was nothing there.  
“I’ll drop you off and check out the sighting.” Jack said sliding into the car.  
“I could come with you. It’s been a while since we went hunting together.” Ianto said getting in next to him, not only had it been a while but he was slightly concerned by what had just happened.  
“I’ll be fine on my own, not to mention the fact, you need your beauty sleep.” Jack said trying to give him a reassuring smile. After dropping Ianto off at the flat Jack headed to where the weevil had been sighted. With a grimace he climbed into the sewer, however if wasn’t a weevil that he found himself facing instead the image of his past, his father yelling at him to run. Quickly Jack made his way back up to the ground and backed away from the opening slowly, still not sure if he should believe what he had seen.  
“Jack? Was it down there? The weevil?” Adam asked from behind him. Jack gave a quick gasp turning to look at his co-worker and friend.  
“No.” Jack said shaking his head, hoping he could calm himself and soon. “How did you get here?”  
“I came with you Jack, remember?” Adam asked setting his hand on Jack shoulder. Of course he had, Jack must have forgotten after his slight hallucinations, he really did need to get some sleep if he was this tired.  
“Yeah, of course.”  
“Are you okay?” Adam asked, worried about his friend. “Jack what did you see?”  
“My past.” Jack still wasn’t sure if what he had seen was real or not, then again what could it have been?

“So, according to the molecular breakdown, this potentially alien complex artifact is, in fact, made out of wood.” Tosh said reading out the scan reading to the rest of the group in the board room. Cali was perched on the table looking over as Owen looked over the artifact, her eyes darting past him to glance over to Ianto leaning against the door.  
“Well, perhaps it fell in the crate by mistake.” Owen said picking the box up in his hands. “Picked up the meson energy from the other stuff.”  
“Yeah, right.” Tosh said turning back to her computer, dismissing Owens theory.  
“Oh, yes, sorry, it’s a stupid idea.”  
“I think Jack brought it in.” Ianto said from his spot by the door. Everyone looked up at him.  
“No, I’m sure Adam found it on an excavation a few months back.” Tosh said. What was this? My lovers better than your lover? Cali thought watching the two. Though if she had to take a side she definitely would totally agree Jack was much more appealing than Adam. Though Ianto in that three piece suit was mouthwatering.  
“I’ll have a look in the diary. I like to log the interesting stuff.”  
“You write about artifacts in your diary?” Cali asked.  
“Among other things.” He said sending her a wink before walking out of the room.  
“So, we are done for the night.” Owen asked, wanting to get back to Gwen.  
“I guess.” Tosh said distracted as she texted Adam.

That night Cali decided to head out for a drink leaving Ianto to look over his diaries in search of any information on the latest artifact. About an hour later Ianto had finished leafing through his diary only to find that disturbingly not only was there nothing it about the artifact but there was absolutely no reference to Adam at all.  
“What’s wrong?” Adam asked, suddenly sitting on the couch next to Ianto.  
Ianto stood up, no longer trusting the man he thought he had known for years, “My diary. You’re not in it.” He watched as Adam started leafing through the pages of his beloved book. “Everyone else is. Why would I leave you out when you’ve been here so long? Like I’m remembering a man who doesn’t exist.” Ianto said backing away as Adam stood up to walk closer. Suddenly Adam dropped the book as his hand flashed in and out of existence. “What are you?” Ianto asked knowing now that his coworker was obviously not his coworker but instead some form of alien. Adam grabbed him by the lapels of his Jacket and shoved him back against the water tower in the center of the hub.  
“Cross me and I will fill you full of fake memories until your head is on fire, because that’s how I exist.”  
Ianto shoved him back off of him “Jack has to know.”  
Adam launched himself at Ianto shoving his hand against his head, “Remember this.” Suddenly Ianto head was filled with the image of him with his hands around a young woman’s throat her hand pushing at his shoulders as she struggled for breath. Suddenly he threw her into the pile of trash next to them, his adrenalin pumping from the thrill of the hunt. “I know you didn’t mean to kill her, remember this” next Ianto mind filled with him pulling back and striking at the woman before sliding his hands back around her throat.  
“I didn’t do that.” Ianto sobbed. As he sank to the floor.  
“Oh yes, you did. And she wasn’t the first.” Next Ianto’s mind was filled with a new woman this one running from him in the rain. When she ran to a wall though he had her cornered. Slowly he stalked toward her as she turned toward him, ready to beg for her life. “Good old Ianto, loyal Ianto.” A new image flashed this time he stalked after a woman down a dark alley, she had yet to realize she was in danger. “Roaming the streets at night for bait.”  
“My diary!” Ianto tried to forget what he was seeing. He couldn’t have done that could he?  
“All human record is a lie. You twist it into what you want to believe. But we know the rot in your heart. You crave flesh.” Ianto crawled backwards trying to keep out of reach as Adam stalked toward him.  
“No. Please!” Ianto begged as Adam crouched next to him.  
“Remember it.” He said grabbing Ianto head between his hands forcing him to remember the awful crimes he had committed. “Remember it.” He repeated as Ianto remembered what it had felt like as the second woman’s pulse died under his gloved hand in the pouring rain. “Remember it! Remember it! Remember it.” He remembered how it had felt when the third woman crumpled under his strikes before he wrapped his fingers around her throat. “I help you dump the bodies.” Ianto remembered the burn of his arms as they hefted a wrapped body into a dumpster, his muscles still thrumming from the kill. “It’s me you call.” Adam said before pressing a rough kiss to Ianto’s lips. “You know, I forgot what a rush it is,” he said pulling a shaking terrified Ianto against his chest, as if to comfort him. “Feeding in the bad stuff.” With that he stood up and strode away. Letting the new horrifying memories sink into the whimpering, sobbing Ianto.

Cali left the pub walking toward the Hub, while she missed having the girl nights with Tosh she was happy her friend had found someone to love her. As she reached the lift she saw Jack striding towards her.  
“Thought you’d be at home.” She said sending him a knowing smile.  
“Yan wasn’t there I figured I’d check to see if he came back here to go through logs or something.” Jack said stepping up next to her. “Would you like to do the honors?” he asked nodding at her wrist.  
“No problem.” She hit a few buttons on her cuff and the lift started to descend.  
“Have a good night?” Jack asked as they headed down.  
“Not has well a night as last week.” She said reminding him of the drunken night they had all shared. Jack laughed as they stepped off the lift.   
They stopped when they heard a light whimpered “Jack” they turned to find Ianto slumped on the floor.  
“Ianto.” They both walked toward him.  
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Cali asked noticing the tried tears and slightly vacant expression on his face.  
“You have to put me in the vaults.” Ianto said, still staring off into the distance. “Lock me up. I killed three girls. Strangled them.”  
“Stop kidding around.” Jack said crossing his arms, him and Cali confused by Ianto’s strange behavior.  
“I’m serious. I murdered them in cold blood. I took their bodies … “suddenly Ianto leapt to his feet, eyes darting around. Cali took a step back, her alcohol fuzzed brain nearly encouraging her to take a step behind Jack. “You have to lock me away.” Ianto said again looking at Jack for the first time. “Before I turn on you.” He said taking a step toward Cali. “None of you are safe.” Suddenly he brushed past making toward the vaults.  
“Hey, hey, come here, come here.” Jack said grabbing his arm. He turned him so he was facing his, a gripping hand on both arms.  
“What’s happened to you?” Cali asked coming up to lay a hand on Ianto arms directly under Jack’s. Jack pulled Ianto into his arms, hoping to still the slight trembles.  
“I’m a monster.” Ianto whispered into Jack’s ear. Hearing that Jack quickly moved Ianto into his office, Cali right on his heels. Jack pushed Ianto into the chair opposite his desk before moving to the vault. While he looked for whatever gadget he was looking for Cali walked over and knelt down by Ianto.  
“This isn’t you.” She said laying her hand on his knee. When he flinched away from her she couldn’t keep the hurt look from her eyes. It wasn’t that she would say they were dating, but she had thought him, her, and Jack had been getting closer.  
“Don’t,” he said sliding the chair away from her, “I’m a monster and I don’t want to hurt you.”  
“I don’t believe that.” She said standing back up as Jack strode back to his desk with a large box in his hand. They were all silent as he pulled out what looked similar to a sound board before attaching something that resembled a microphone. Once it was attached the tip lit up glowing green, with three green lights facing Jack.  
“Best lie detector on the planet. If something’s untrue the light turns red.” Jack said as the machine started to beep. “Go.”  
“My … hands on her throat.” Jack and Cali watched as his hands gripped the arms of the chair and a confused look filled his eyes, a small almost evil grin tightening his lips, “and it felt so good.” Cali and Jack both looked down; their solid resolve that none of it was true trembling when the light stayed green. “Squeezing the life out of her.” Still the light stayed green, “it reads as truth.” Cali’s heart broke at the hopeless sound in Ianto’s voice.  
“I don’t believe it.” Jack said and Cali had to agree, she might not have known Ianto as long as Jack had, but she knew he could never hurt someone in cold blood. “Okay, tell me about the second girl.”  
Cali’s heart broke at Ianto’s whimper. “She tried to get away, but I was too quick.” His body began to tremble again, but this time instead of with fear, it seemed to tremble in excitement. “Pleading, and I … I didn’t care.” It was as if a switch had been flipped and again he switched from excitement and sounding as if he had relished the moment to sounding frightened and disturbed by the memories haunting him. “Something in me wants to kill.”  
“No.” it was almost a whisper “this is not you. Something’s changed you.” Jack turned the machine off and getting up out of his desk. “You’re not a murderer. I’m certain of it.” Jack walked out of the room leaving Cali and Ianto alone.  
“He’s right this isn’t you.” Cali said wanting to hold him, comfort him, but not wanting to see the fear of hurting her haunt his eyes again. “Please believe that Yan, you wouldn’t hurt anyone, and you won’t hurt me.” She said walking toward him.  
Quickly he stood up and backed away, “I don’t want to hurt you.”  
“You won’t.” She said taking the last step forward and wrapping her arms around his waist, her face pressed to his chest. She waited a heartbeat till he finally wrapped his arms around her, clutching her close and sobbing. “Come on, let’s go help Jack find out what the hell is going on.” She said pulling back and wiping the tears from his face. Gently she pulled him out of the office and followed Jack.  
He was at Tosh’s desk, his fingers flying over the keys almost as fast as Tosh’s would have. “What are we looking for?” Cali said walking over, leaving Ianto to follow.  
“CCTV, I’m going to find out who or what happened to him.” He scrolled through before clicking on a stilled image.  
“All human record is a lie.” Adam’s voice came floating out of the speakers, accompanied by the near whimpers and gasps from Ianto, “You crave flesh. Remember this.” She watched as Ianto tried to crawl away from Adam, screaming as Adam placed his hand on his head.   
Suddenly Jack was changing images and they were looking at Tosh and Adam. “A year ago today. Do you remember that?” this time Adam placed his hand on the side of Tosh’s neck, before pulling her into a kiss.  
Moving to a new screen Jack clicked open yet another CCTV footage, this time of when Gwen had first come in the day before. “Who the hell is this?” Cali remembered thinking at the time that there was no way that even Gwen could forget a whole person but know she wondered if any of them had every really known him to begin with, and as in the other two she watched as Adam touched Gwen while asking her to remember. Jack rewound it and watched it again. Again he pulled up the footage of Adam and Ianto before turning to drag Ianto from where he was sitting on the stairs behind them.  
“Come here, come here. Just look, look.” He said pulling him in front of the screen. They both held Ianto between them while he watched Adam force the memories into his head. Suddenly jack was gone leaving a rage filled Cali with her arm around a shaking Ianto. They quickly followed Jack to the med bay while he pulled out the vials of blood belonging to the Torchwood team. “Where’s Adam’s blood sample?” Suddenly Ianto moved back to the computers, Cali and Jack following him.  
“Everything’s in order here.” Ianto said pulling up Adams personnel file.  
“When was it last updated?” Cali demanded.  
“Twenty four hours ago.”  
“He’s a Nu Ma Uita., isn’t he” Cali said turning to look at Jack. Before she could answer the lights flicked on and the team started to arrive. Cali felt herself stiffen at the sound of Adam’s voice, but quickly Jack shook his head in warning. Sending him a quick glare she dropped a hand onto Ianto’s shoulder in support. Slowly they all moved to their normal positions, and all of them kept a very watchful eye on Adam as he interacted with the others. Even pulling Gwen Owen and Tosh into a group hug. Cali growled in disgust.  
When Ianto walked by heading to the coffee machine Adam extracted himself from the group, “Hey, Ianto, come here.” He pulled his coat off before putting a hand on Ianto’s arm, Cali had to force herself not to leap from her seat and attaché him at that exact moment. “You all right, mate?” for a few seconds they stared at each other, “Listen, I could murder a coffee.” he said before settling into his seat.  
Ianto’s eyes darted around until they locked onto Cali’s who gave him a measuring nod. Next he searched for Jack, but was unable to locate him. Suddenly there was the clicking of the hammer of a gun and Cali smirked as Adams skull touched the muzzle of Jack’s Webley “Talk to me, Adam. If that’s even your name.” the entire Hub went still, looking at Jack in confusion.  
“What?” Adam gave a small chuckle.  
“What are you doing Jack?” Gwen asked with a small laugh, trying to lighten the situation.  
“He’s not who you think he is. He’s been feeding himself into our memories by touch.”  
“Is this some kind of sick joke?” Tosh asked.  
“He didn’t exist until two days ago.” Cali said from where she stood watching coldly.  
“Can somebody tell me what’s going on here please?” Finally Adam was starting to look almost worried.  
“Jack, we’ve known him for years. He’s part of the team.” Owen said taking a step forward.  
“No. He just made you think that.”  
“Come on, Jack.” Adam said reaching a hand out.  
“Ah, you don’t get to me like that.” Jack said stepping back. Cali’s hand rested on her weapon. Even if he somehow managed to touch Jack, there was no way he could get to her before she shot him, and it would definitely be a kill shot.  
“Jack, you know me. You recruited me three years ago.”  
“All I know is that when I think of my team, I see you there. But I don’t feel anything for you. No pride, no warmth.” Jack said, “You, the one who I can confide in, the one who unburied the dead. I’m taking him to the vaults.” He said pulling Adam up by the shirt and shoving him forward.  
“Jack this is ridiculous.” Adam was nearly pleading.  
“MOVE!” Jack ordered. Suddenly there was the click of a gun and they all turned to look at Tosh as she pointed her at gun at Jack’s back.  
“No.”  
“Tosh, That’s not gonna help.” Owen said trying to move in to diffuse the situation.  
“It’s fine.” Gwen said from next to him her hands up.  
“Toshiko” Jack said, pulling her attention back to him, he didn’t want that gun pointed at anyone in the room besides him, he was the only one who could survive being shot. “I’m just going to lock him up.” he said trying to reason with her.  
“Let him go.” She tried to demand. Slowly Cali rose from her chair, glad that she hadn’t lost all of her training, and started circling so she was directly behind Tosh.  
“I’m not going to harm him.”  
“Why should I believe you?” she was starting to shake with mixed emotions.  
“Tosh, Tosh, we can talk about this.” Owen said inadvertently pulling her attention back to him before she swung back to Jack.  
“Drop the gun, Jack.” Lunging forward Cali grabbed the gun sweeping her arms up and clicking the safety on... Ianto moved in and helped to wrestle the gun from her hands. “Get off of me.”  
She screamed as Owen moved into calm her down. Cali quickly slid the gun into the back of her jeans and backed away from her distressed friend.  
“This is what you’ve done to us.” Jack growled at Adam, “Move!”  
“Adam!” Tosh let out one final yell as her love was pushed away.

Soon Cali helped Jack to usher everyone into the board room where she sat opposite of him in between Ianto and Gwen.  
“Our memories define us.” He said, Adam in his cell on the screen behind him. “Adam changed those memories. Changed who we are. Now I have to help you all go back. Find a memory that defines you. Rediscover who you are. If I’m wrong, he’ll still be here when we’ve done this.” He reached into the table and switched the monitor to ripples of water, “Let me take you back to before we all met.” He pressed another button and let the lights in the room lower, “Feel around you for anything that make you what you are. The hidden and the forgotten. Tell me where you are.”  
Gwen starts to giggle, lost in her own thoughts.  
“I love you because you’re my son, but that doesn’t mean I have to like you.” Owen says darkly.  
“Maths club, something so reliable about maths. Always the right answer.” Tosh says across from him.  
Ianto smiles, “meeting Lisa, falling in love, never felt so alive.”  
“Being excepted into officers school, daddy was so proud, and my mom even cried she was so happy.” Cali recalled.  
“I turned 16. She packs my bags. That is the nicest thing you’ve done for me in years Mother.” Owen says.  
“Kiss you here, for the first time, the look on your face.” Gwen says turning to look at Owen.  
“My first flat, I don’t have a flat warming. There’s no one I want to invite.” Tosh says her voice sad.  
“Losing Lisa. Like the world had ended.”   
“Losing my first Comrade, knowing that she had moved in front of the bullet for me.” Cali felt her throat close.  
“The way you’ll look at me. Like you’re scarred of what you feel. I love you.”  
“Take this.” Jack said handing her a small white pill.  
“Knowing there has to be more to life than this.” Tosh said, tears leaking down her face, “knowing I’m special. Waiting for someone to see it.”  
Jack set his hand on her shoulder to bring her attention up to him and smiled down at her, “I saw it.”  
“You save one life, 100 lives, but it’s never enough,” Owen says thinking back to the first wedding he had been planning, “Who’ll save me?”  
“I will.” Jack said setting a hand on either side of the young medics shoulder.  
“Coming here …. It gave me meaning again.” Ianto turned to look up at Jack, “You.”  
Jack leaned down and kissed his forehead.  
“Learning that you can have a family, even while saving the world.” Cali said her eyes drifting up to look at both Ianto and Jack. Jack smiled down at her.  
“You each have a short term amnesia pill, it’ll make you forget Adam. We have to wipe out the last 48 hours from our memories. Go back to who we were.” Jack watched as his team slowly took the pills. First Ianto and Cali, then Gwen and Owen. Tosh leaned forward and flipped the monitor back so she could see Adam.  
“I’m going to lose so much.”  
“None of it was real.” Jack said moving around to comfort her.  
“He loved me. And I loved him.” She turned, tears running down her face. “It’s no different from real memory.”  
Gently Jack cupped her face, “He forced it on you. You have to let it go.” Gently he placed the pill back in her hand and helped her into her chair. Jack moved around the table, gently lowering his teams heads to the table, when he reached Cali and Ianto, he smiled, they had fallen toward each other, her head on his shoulder, and his head on top of hers. Once they were all asleep he left.

Cali woke up in the board room, leaning out of her chair her head on Ianto’s shoulder. Sitting up she stretched her hands over her head, feeling a kink had formed from her awkward sleeping angle. Confusedly she look around to see the rest of the team, sans Jack asleep around the table. Turning she saw Ianto starting to wake up.  
“Why are we in the board room?’ Cali asked when his eyes met hers. The last thing she could remember was falling asleep curled between Jack and Ianto at Ianto’s flat.  
“I have no clue.” He said. One by one the other three team members started to wake up, each as confused as the rest. As a unit they all made their way back to the main portion of the Hub. As Ianto moved to make everyone coffee, the rest moved to their stations. A few minutes later Jack emerged from the vaults.  
“Jack, how have we lost two days?” Gwen asked.  
“What do you mean?” he said coming over to look at her monitors.  
“Lost 48 hours.” Ianto said moving to start the morning coffee deliveries. “None of us can remember a thing.”  
“The system’s blank, the CCTV’s been wiped.” Tosh informed him.  
“What’s been going on? What’ve we been doing?” Cali asked.  
“I don’t know.” Jack said, wondering if somehow they had another basement visitor.  
“Great. That’s two days of my life that I’ll never get back!” Owen stated before heading down to the med bay.

Cali headed into Jack’s office a few minutes later, not liking that she couldn’t remember what had happened.  
“Jack” she said curling into the chair opposite his desk, nursing her cup of coco. “What could possibly have happened?” she asked as he lifted a small box from his desk, looking at it as if he had never seen it before.  
“I have no clue.” He hadn’t gotten much farther than that before Ianto came in.  
“Did you call?” he asked coming in.  
“Found your dairy.” Jack said tossing a small leather bound book to him.  
“Yep, been looking for that.” Ianto strode across the office to take it.  
“And for the record, measuring tapes never lie.” Jack said to Ianto’s retreating back with a smirk.  
Ianto stopped at the door, his head dropping, “Fuck”  
“Wait what?” Cali asked her eyes darting between her two lovers, “What do you mean measuring tapes never lie?”  
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Ianto asked before walking out.


	9. Hub Lock Down

Cali growled in frustration as she dug through her overnight bag realizing she had once again forgotten to pack a bra for the next day, and once again one of the boys had destroyed the one she had been wearing the day before.  
“Missing something?” Jack asked from where he was finishing getting dressed on the other side of the bed. She turned to see the smirk on his face and sent him a glare as she dialed Tosh.  
“Hello?” her roommate answered.  
“We have a B-642 situation.” She said glad her and Tosh had figured out a code no one else had been able to crack.  
“What happened to the one you had on yesterday?”  
“343.”  
“Again?” her friend asked in disbelief.  
“I blame it on 474.”  
“Why is it always his fault?” Tosh asked chuckling.  
“Because it normally is… I mean 424 isn’t that bad in that way.”  
“I’ll leave one in your desk drawer for you.”  
“Thank you.  
“No problem.” Cali smiled at her phone as she hung up.  
“Tosh bringing you a backup bra?” Jack asked cheekily.  
“She wouldn’t have to if you would stop destroying them.” Cali challenged slipping her shirt on.  
“It’s not my fault you’re so appealing.”  
“Don’t feel bad I’ve lost a number of ties to that maniac.” Ianto said as he came into the room fresh from his shower. Cali couldn’t help as her breath caught when he reached up to towel some of the moisture from his hair, water dripping down his bare chest.  
“How am I a maniac?”  
“How have you two destroyed ties?”  
Both asked their questions at the same time.  
“Jack you have no patience; I hate to compare it like this but you’re like a 3 year old let loose in candy shop with no restrictions. As for how the ties have been destroyed… well... I’m sure you’ll find out.” He gave Cali a smirk that set her blood flowing.  
“Coffee?” Jack asked hopefully as he sat on the bed to pull his socks on.  
“Is brewing and you will not touch that pot before it has finished Jack Harkness.” Ianto said giving Jack a pointed look in the mirror.  
“How about I go start breakfast?” Cali asked as she slid her S&W into the small of her back.  
“Sounds good what you making?” Jack asked standing ready to follow her out.  
“Eggs and sausage sound good?”  
“Sounds great.” Ianto answered with a soft smile.  
Cali’s phone rang from her pocket, it was Tosh.  
“Hello?”  
“We have a problem.”  
“What?”  
“You’re completely out of bras.”  
“What?” Cali asked in disbelief, there was no way that Jack and Ianto had destroyed all seven of her bras could they? “Any in the basket?”  
“Your baskets empty hun.”  
“Can you pick me up from Yan’s flat?”  
“On my way.”  
“You’re the best.” She said hanging up, “Sorry boys you’re on your own for food.”  
“What! Why?” Jack asked feeling his hopes of good food slip away.  
“Because between the two of you I don’t have a single bra left. So Tosh is picking me up and we are going shopping, might be a little late to work boss.”  
“What did you only own two?” Jack asked incredulously. He knew he hadn’t destroyed that many.  
“No. I had seven.” Cali growled.  
“We couldn’t have ruined that many.” Jack said with a frown turning to look at Ianto.  
“Well, actually ….” Ianto ran the past month through in his head, “she’s right you’ve ruined 5 while I may have been a little rough with one or two.”  
“Oops.”  
“Yeah oops, now I have to go shopping and there is a new rule, my undergarments get ruined because of you boys you both will get me a new matching set from Victoria Secrets, no matter who destroys it.” She threatened with a smile just has she heard a quick beep of a horn. “Gotta go.” She said leaning up to first give Jack a quick peck before wandering back to Ianto to do the same. She grabbed her overnight bag and headed down to meet Tosh.  
“So was last night at least good enough to warrant a ruined bra?’ Tosh asked as Cali slid in.  
“Yeah,” she answered with a small smile, “yeah it was.”

The day was rather quiet, the team only getting one alert to go pick up a hostile alien and getting a call from a certain PC to look at a case. The case turned out to be a rather gruesome Weevil attack, and the PC was Andy Davidson. When they got back to the Hub Tosh agreed to talk to Andy, in hopes that the team wouldn’t have to Retcon him.

As Jack exited his office he notices that Tosh and Andy were still in the board room, Owen was down performing his latest autopsy on the weevil they had to put down, and neither Gwen nor Cali were in sight. Ianto was over by Tosh’s console picking up from around her desk. Quietly Jack slid up behind him pushing the young Welshman against the desk and laying a kiss along his neck. As Ianto was pushed against the desk he put his hands out to catch his balance, his hands falling on Tosh’s Keyboard. Suddenly the alarms sounded and the cog door rolled closed.  
“JACK!” Tosh yelled running from the boardroom toward her station.  
“What?” Jack asked innocently, though he was suddenly on alert.  
“You just triggered the program I’m working on… the Hub is now in full lock down for the next 48 hours… and I have no clue what else you’ve done.” She said trying to get some response from her now dead computer.  
“Where are the girls?” Jack asked now worried what could be happening to them.  
“Cali went down to feed our prisoners and Gwen is down in the armory.” Ianto said straightening his suit.  
“Owen you and Andy go down to the armory and tell Gwen to keep calm that we will be down there as soon as possible to get her out. Tosh see if you can get the Hub to open up, Ianto me and you are going down to the Vaults to check on Cali.” Jack ordered as he headed toward the vaults, Ianto giving both Tosh and Andy one of the Walkie Talkies he had gotten when John Hart had knocked out their Comms System. Jack and Ianto ran side by side down the stairs to the vaults, Jack pushing Ianto behind him as he opened the door, not knowing what they would find.

Cali was just shutting the cell when the Hub’s alarms blared to life. Suddenly the lights went out leaving the entire area in the eerie red glow of the safety lights. Cali pulled the S&W from the small of her back as the cell doors started to open again. Before she could bring her weapon up to aim she was grabbed behind and thrown against the old stone walls. Her head connected with a sickening crunch and she slid into a heap on the floor, her vision going black.

Owen lead Andy through the maze that was Torchwood at a brisk walk, hoping his fiancée hadn’t been in the armory at the time of shut down.  
“Hello? Can anyone here me?” he heard Gwen’s muffled voice as the rounded the last corner.  
“Gwen,” Owen ran over to the steel door, “Gwen, can you hear me?”  
“Owen what the hell is going on?”  
“Jack and Tea Boy accidently locked the Hub down. Tosh is working on getting us back online, and Jack and Ianto are going to find Cali. Then we are going to get you out of here.”  
“Tell them to hurry, we didn’t put any freaking emergency lights in here …” Owen understood, ever since the close call they had had with the cannibals the year before Gwen had become slightly skittish in the dark.  
“Don’t worry Andy and I aren’t leaving this door till you come out.” Owen said, hoping it would be enough for Gwen and that Jack and Ianto would hurry.

Jack pushed the door to the vaults open and cursed under his breath. All the vaults had been opened and had let lose three weevils. At the far end he could see Cali crumpled on the floor.  
“Ok Ianto, I’m going to cover you and keep them away you go get Cali and haul your very adorable ass back over here.” Jack said before firing a shot directly over the squabble drawing all three aliens’ attention to him, “GO!” Jack shouted. He side stepped as Ianto ran down the corridor making sure to keep himself in between the aliens and his lover. One weevil took a step forward and Jack fired a shot into the floor making the alien stop. He watched out of the corner of his eye as Ianto gently lifted Cali’s limp form into his arms, cradling her against his chest. Quickly Ianto made his way back to the door sliding through it before Jack had made his way there and heading back up the stairs.  
“Jack get Owen to the med bay, her head is bleeding.” Ianto said not slowing his pace.  
“God damn it.” He pulled the talkie from his pocket, “Owen get your ass to the med bay now, Cali cracked her head open when she hit a wall.” He growled into the device.

“Shit,” Owen said, “Gwen, I have to go but Andy will stay here.”  
“Hurry up.” Gwen growled out.  
“Anyone but a team member comes through that door you shoot them, no warnings, you shoot to kill, understand?” he asked the blonde.  
“Got it, now go.” Andy said planting his back to the door so he could survey the surrounding area.

It took about an hour to get Gwen free from the Armory, and when the four made their way back to the main section of the Hub Ianto and Jack smiled at the sound of Cali’s very annoyed voice.  
“Owen, you are going to remove these restraints now or so help me god.” She growled at the young medic.  
“You aren’t going anywhere; you have ten stitches in your scalp along with a hairline fracture of your skull resulting in a very nasty concussion.” The boys moved to the top of the bay so they could see what was going on. Cali was on the small gurney/autopsy table her hands bound in leather cuffs holding her to the table. Just as they felt relief surge through their bodies Cali went limp on the table her hands falling to the side and her head lolling on her shoulders.  
“Owen.” Jack yelled to get the medic’s attention as he ran down the steps, Ianto hot on his heels. Owen turned to see his patient had passed out again.  
“Shit” he said rushing over. He had just reached the bottom of the gurney when Cali’s eyes popped open and she drove her foot straight into his stomach. Jack and Ianto stopped in their tracks, to stunned to move or say anything.  
“Now let me out.” She said her eyes narrowed in rage.   
“Fine you want out?” Owen growled, his hand still clutching his stomach, “You can get out, but if you fall over dead from bleeding in that tiny brain of yours don’t come haunting me.” He said ripping the cuffs open.  
“Thank you.” She said sitting up, and slowly sliding from the table. “So someone want to tell me what the hell happened that all the lights are off and the cells are opening of their own accord?” she asked Ianto and Jack as she slowly made her way up the stairs knowing that if she moved to fast she would get dizzy and the boys would insist she listen to Owen.  
“Well God forbid Jack keep his hands to himself while at work, decided that my desk was the place to feel up Ianto, causing him to accidently set off the program I had been working on. It’s caused the entire Hub to lock down for the next 48 hours, and since it was incomplete we had no way of knowing what else it would cause including the cells opening, and there is no reversal for it.” Tosh answered crossly.  
“I see, well since we are here for the next 2 days with no way out, Ianto why don’t I help you to get that new camping gear from the basement so we all have a place to sleep.” Cali said.  
“No heavy lifting,” Owen called from his domain.  
“Aye, aye Captain,” Cali responded sarcastically.  
“Hey don’t be giving him my tittle” Jack said, back to his normal self now that he knew his team wasn’t in danger. Both Ianto and Cali rolled their eyes as they each grabbed a torch and headed down to the archives.  
“Are you really alright?’ Ianto asked as they descended the stairs.  
“Have this raging head ache for some odd reason.” Cali answered smiling up at him.  
Ianto rolled his eyes, “Seriously how do you feel?”  
Cali stopped and turned to face him, “Ianto, I’m fine I promise, if I feel dizzy or faint I promise to sit down and tell someone.” She said resting her hand reassuringly on his arm.  
For a moment he searched her eyes and when what he saw there confirmed what she said he nodded before pulling her into an embrace and planting a kiss on her forehead, “I won’t lie, I was scared when Jack and I found you.”  
She pulled back and smiled up at him, “Puhlease, you think a couple of weevils are going to keep me down? I’d eat ‘em for breakfast.” He just shook his head before stepping back continuing down the corridor, Cali keeping her arm linked through his.  
From the archives they pulled up two air mattresses, after deciding they would most likely end up in Jack’s bunk with him and either Tosh or Andy would sleep on the couch, and four sleeping bags. Both agreed to make a second trip to bring up the pillows. They also located a few lights and generators they could use to illuminate the Hub. Jack helped Owen to move the gurney to one side down in the Med Bay so he and Gwen could sleep down there, with the illusion of privacy. Cali and Gwen helped Ianto in the small kitchenette to make a dinner for the team. Tosh and Andy went in search of entertainment for the group.  
“You know it’s a good thing you started the emergency kits you two.” Gwen said referring to the fact that since Cali had arrived she had pointed out to both Jack and Ianto that there was no way they could survive in the Hub if anything happened. So they had started to put away a stash of food and clothing for the team that would last them about a week.  
“It’s even better that both Ianto and Andy are about the same size” Cali said as she strained the noodles that Ianto had passed over to her. They had decided on a pasta and salad for the night. Ianto was working on the sauce while Cali and Gwen had worked at prepping the veggies that had been in the fridge.  
“So what’s with Andy and Tosh?” Gwen asked.  
“Does it matter?” Cali asked, becoming irritated at the near hint of jealousy. Ianto froze at the icy tone of her voice; this was not going to be good.  
“Yes it matters, Tosh is a friend and Andy was my partner.” Gwen said turning to face her colleague.  
“And now he’s not.” “Cali challenged.  
“So that means I shouldn’t care about him?”  
“Why does it matter what’s between the two of them?” Cali snapped getting frustrated at the Welshwoman’s pushing.  
“Because I care about both of them.” Gwen said taking a step toward the American.  
“Why don’t you care a little less about everyone else’s affairs and be more concerned with your own.” Cali said stepping forward, refusing to back down.  
“Listen I wouldn’t expect you to understand since, you aren’t exactly from around here-” Ianto stepped between the two feuding women before things could get worse.  
“Ok enough, Gwen finish the salads, Cali why don’t you go set up the boardroom for dinner please.”  
Cali took a deep breath sending Gwen one last glare before gathering the plates and silverware from the counters and walking up to the boardroom.  
Through the dinner the team joked, even including Andy into the mix, only Ianto was aware of the cuttable tension between Gwen and Cali who had taken seats completely opposite of each other at the table. Jack sat at the head of the table as normal with Ianto on one side and Cali on the other. Next to Ianto was Owen, with Gwen next to him. Across from Gwen was Tosh, and Andy sat between Cali and Tosh.  
“So every time you guys show up at a scene, it’s for aliens?” Andy asked.  
“Most of the time, sometimes, like the time Gwen first saw us,” Jack said nodding to the end of the table, “we are there to test out Alien technology. That particular time it was a glove that could resurrect the dead one time for 2 minutes.”  
“That’s amazing. We could solve so many murders with that bit of technology.”  
“Only a few problems,” Tosh said, “one we had to destroy the glove and two most times when we would bring someone back they were to panicked to be able to tell us anything.”  
“Oh,” Andy thought about that a moment, “I can understand how that could be a little hard to deal with ‘ello mate sorry to tell you this but you were murdered can you tell us who did it?’” he said with a chuckle.  
“Exactly,” Tosh said with a small giggle.  
After they had finished eating Cali helped Ianto to clean up. Owen and Gwen headed down to the bay to discuss wedding details while Jack, Tosh, and Andy settled around the coffee table and started playing a card game. After the dishes were washed Cali decided it was time for bed.  
“I’m going to head down,” she said to Ianto, her head starting to throb even more.  
“You ok?” he asked turning to look at her, concern plain in his glittering blue eyes.  
“Yeah, heads just hurting is all.” She said with an easy smile.  
“You know Owen is going to insist on you being woken up at regular intervals.”  
Cali groaned, wanting to just curl up and sleep. “Can you talk to him?”  
“Go to bed I’ll talk to our neighborhood pain.” Ianto said with a small smile, “I’ll be down soon.”  
“Sounds good.” She said with a small smile. She walked out by the other stopping to tell Jack good night and pressing a kiss to his temple before going to his office. Once in there she wiggled out of her jeans and folded them laying them in one of the chairs before tossing her bra on top and climbing down to the bunk. She laid down pulled the blanket around her smiling as Jack's scent filled her nostrils. Just before she drift off to sleep she felt the bunk dip as Ianto climbed in next to her pulling her against his chest.


	10. Moving In

Cali carefully climbed out of the bunk, trying not to wake the boys. She was just about out when an arm snaked around her waist pulling her back down to the bed.  
“Where are you going?” Jack whispered into her ear.  
“To get to the shower before anyone else. Go back to sleep.” She said running her hand through his sleep tousled hair.   
“Eh, who needs a hot shower?” He said tightening his grip around her waist.  
Cali rolled her eyes, “Jack if you don’t stop you’re going to wake Ianto up.”  
“Mmm, I’m already up, and I agree with Jack; who needs a hot shower?” Ianto mumbled against her shoulder.

An hour later all three slowly made their way from the bunk, thoroughly awake and regenerated for the day.  
“Now can I take a shower?” she asked sarcastically.  
“Mmm, why don’t we join you?” Jack said with a smirk.  
“Because other people will want to take a shower sometime today.” Cali said with a laugh. “Don’t you ever stop?” she asked giving his shoulder a playful punch.  
“Nope.” He said trying to pull her against him again.  
Cali laughed pushing at him, “Ianto will you tame this maniac already?”  
“That would be like taming a weevil.” Ianto said before lifting her out of Jacks arms and tossing her over his shoulder.  
“Ooh, I like that view.” Jack said moving closer.  
“Oh god, will you two put me down?” Cali demanded with a laugh, taking a swat at Ianto’s rear.  
“Oi, put the girl with a concussion back on her feet.” Owen yelled as he exited the Med Bay.  
“You heard the Doc, put me on my feet.” Ianto gently lowered her to the ground.  
“Since when do you listen to Owen?” Jack said as they exited his office.  
“When it gets me what I want.” She said grinning over her shoulder. Cali stopped with a small smile on her face when she saw that Tosh and Andy where still asleep. Tosh was curled up on the couch and Andy was propped up against it, his head was resting back on the cushion. Her eyes darted over to where Gwen was standing, emotions were washing over her face. They went from shocked to amusement and finally settled on something that closely resembled jealousy. Cali nearly growled at her collogue as she stalked past her heading to the depths of the Hub in search of a hot shower.

When Cali reemerged twenty minutes later, Tosh and Andy had woken up and were helping Gwen and Owen to hide the bedding from the night before in a corner of the board room, as Jack helped Ianto with breakfast. Cali wondered over to the kitchenette, perching herself on the counter.  
“Morning.” Ianto said handing her her normal fix of hot chocolate with a dash of espresso.  
“Mmm,” She breathed in the welcoming aroma coming from her mug, “and now it’s a good morning.”  
“What is going on between you and Gwen?” Jack asked turning to look at her.  
“What do you mean?” she asked distractedly taking a sip of the liquid gold.  
“I mean the tension. There is enough to cut through the cog door and get us all out.”  
“She made a comment yesterday that pissed me off.” She said with a shrug.  
“Which was?”  
“She started getting all territorial about Andy, demanding to know what was going on between him and Tosh. Frankly I don’t think it’s any of her God Damn business.” Cali replied feeling her eyes go cold.  
“I see.” Jack said with a sigh, “Cali, Gwen is funny that way about relationships; however one thing I can say is she never ruins a relationship other than her own.”  
“Yeah well, sorry if I don’t want to see Owen get hurt either.” Cali said sliding off the table, “I’m heading down to the gym.”  
“Be careful, you do still have a concussion.” Ianto said as she walked out.  
“Yes dad.” She replied rolling her eyes.

She had just started a sweat breaking pace on one of the tread mills when Tosh came in.  
“So I hear you and Gwen are at ends.” She said stepping onto the treadmill next to Cali and set it to a brisk walk.  
“She sticks her nose where it doesn’t belong.” Cali considered turning the speed up on the treadmill. Her mother’s words were ringing in her ears, ‘you aren’t running hard enough if you can still talk.’  
“She doesn’t mean anything by it.” Tosh said. “Sometimes when Gwen says something it’s because she is trying to understand this world we live in. Even after everything we see, she still believes in the fundamental thought that everything and everyone is good and that there is a clear distinction between right and wrong.”  
“Yeah I guess you’re right.” Cali said with a sigh. “It just bugs me is all, must be my strict military upbringing.” Cali said sending her friend a smile.  
“So you Jack and Ianto seem to be getting pretty domestic.” Tosh said with a smile.  
“I don’t know if you can describe Jack Harkness as domestic.”  
“You know what I mean, Cal you spend more nights at Ianto’s with Jack than you do at the flat.”  
“No I don’t.” Cali said, surely she didn’t.  
“How many days have you spent in your own bed in the last two weeks?” Tosh challenged. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Cali living with her; she just knew that her friend would be happier if she lived with the two men she loved.  
Cali turned the thought over in her head, “Four.” She answered realizing that Tosh was right.  
“Have you ever thought of just moving in?”  
“I don’t want to impose.” Cali said as she jumped up the treadmill feeling that the tension from stress had left her muscles.  
“You wouldn’t be imposing, and she does have a point you do spend most nights there.” Ianto said from the doorway. He held two water bottles in his hands.  
“Yeah?” She said walking over to grab one for herself and tossing the other to Tosh.  
“Why not?” He said.  
“Okay.” She said with a smile before talking a few big gulps from her bottle.

The rest of the day was calm. The team spent most of the morning cleaning up their work stations and catching up on paper work. After lunch Tosh and Ianto wired up a DVD player and a projector while Owen Jack and Andy moved the table to the far side of the board room. Cali, Tosh and Gwen went to retrieve the rest of the bedding from the archives. They spread everything out on the floor of the board room and all settled down to watch the classic movie ‘Aliens’. After a picnic style dinner, they all sat around and played board and card games, laughing and joking around. Around one am. Jack, Ianto and Cali made their way down to the bunk, curling around each other before falling into a deep, blissful sleep.  
The next morning Ianto woke up before the other two and lay listening to their shallow even breathing. Soon he could hear Jack wake up, his breath caught slightly as he stretched the sleep from his muscles.  
“So did she tell you what we talked about yesterday?” Ianto asked.  
“No, what?” Jack asked sending him a frown.  
“She’s going to move in.”  
“Makes sense, I mean she practically lives there as it is.”  
“That’s what I said.” Ianto said with a chuckle.  
“Will you two morons shut your yaps?” Cali asked turning to bury her face farther into the pillow.  
“Nope time to get up.” Jack said landing a light swat on her rump causing her to let out a small yelp before sending him a glare. Soon all three had climbed from the bunk and were ready to start another day locked in the Hub. This day was much like the one before, only this time for about an hour everyone hit the gym and the gun range. Cali could feel the cabin fever filling her friends and was glad that they would all be able to leave that night around seven thirty and for some reason she felt the need to go play in the bay.   
“Who wants to grab a pint down at the pub when this bloody place lets us out?” Owen said as they all settled down to watch the second installment of ‘Aliens’.  
“Sounds good to me.” Jack said looking over at Ianto and Cali who both nodded their agreement.  
“I’m in.” Andy said, glad that the Torchwood team had so readily accepted him into their folds.  
“Sure, could be fun.” Tosh said with a smile.  
The movie ended around six thirty, and the team started gathering the supplies they had used and all helped to bring them back down to where they had been stored. Jack and Owen pushed the table in the board room back into its place. They were all on edge once seven thirty hit, waiting for the systems to come back online and allow them freedom. At 7:45 the entire team had piled into the lift and where on their way up to the main land. As soon as they were outside they all wordlessly agreed that they would rather walk to the Pub than pile into the SUV. That night Cali, Jack and Ianto sat out on the balcony of Ianto’s flat and just stared out at the sky.  
“You know so many of these stars don’t exist in my time.” Cali said snuggling back against Ianto who was leaning against Jack. “So many have burned out.”  
“I know what you mean.” Jack said, letting his mind drift to the night sky he used to look at as a young boy.  
“And here I was thinking how empty the sky looked here in the city.” Ianto said, wondering how he fit in with these two time travelers from the future. Soon they decided that they should move inside, but left the doors to the patio open, allowing the breeze from the bay to blow through the bedroom as they slept.

Cali woke with her head cradled against Jack’s chest with Ianto’s face buried in her stomach, his arm thrown over her waist and Jack’s arm across his back. How could she ever second think waking up like this every morning? She smiles running her fingers lightly through Ianto’s tussled hair. He would be asleep for easily another two or three hours, while Jack should be waking up soon. She wasn’t sure why, but it seemed like the more time she spent here the less she slept, unless she was hurt.  
“You up already?” Jack asked stifling a yawn.  
“Yeah, I swear it’s like I need to sleep less and less.” She whispered.  
“I know what you mean.” Jack ran his one hand absently along Ianto’s spine, his other hand playing with her hair. “Truthfully until I started spending nights with Ianto I only slept maybe 3 hours a week. For some reason though it’s like the more time I spend with you humans the more sleep I need.” He gave a small chuckle. “You people wear an old man like me out.”  
“Old man my ass.” She said tilting her head to smile up at him. “When did you leave the Boshaen?”  
“I was 18 when I joined the Time agency. It would have been right around 5093. I spend a stint with an old partner, technically we were only together for two weeks. It was just my luck that the task was for us to break this time loop. The two of us had to relive these two weeks for what felt like five years… When we got out… well let’s just say I’m missing two years’ worth of memories. When I had found out they had done this I left, went rogue. Did that for about a year, that’s when I met the Doctor and Rose. Then I travelled with them for about a year. I was about 27 when I died. When I woke up I was alone on Satellite Five. Thankfully I was able to tap into the last bits of energy to charge my Vortex Manipulator and after jumping around for a while I was finally able to make it to 1856 I spent some time here, some in the United States. I served in both world wars, but always came back here. About six months ago the Doctor showed up again and I needed answers. So I went with him.”  
“Did you get any answers?” She asked one hand still playing with Ianto’s hair, the other one running a comforting trail up and down the upper arm that was running up and down Ianto’s spine.  
“Simple answer, nothing. More complex answer is that I have become a near fixed point in space and time, I’ll age but very slowly, I can’t die, and the Doctor has no idea what so ever.” He laid a light kiss on her forehead. “What about you? Lieutenant?”  
“I just followed in my mother’s footsteps; it’s all I wanted to be.”  
“God the two of us are so out of place,” he said with a small chuckle.  
“You think.” She said rolling her eyes. “Did you ever think about going back?”  
“No, there was nothing at home for me, and here I had Ianto and the rest of the team, and now there’s you. Why would I want to go back?”  
“What about family?” She felt him stiffen for a moment at the question.  
“They’re gone.” He said. “Why didn’t you want us to send you back? You obviously still have a family there, and no one can blame you for soldiers dying in combat.”  
“I won’t lie and say I don’t miss my family. My parents and sister must be worried, but even if no one there would blame me I would. I do blame myself for their deaths. I can’t face my mother knowing that I lead 12 girls to their deaths.”  
“Their soldiers, it’s what they are trained for.” He said softly.  
“Jack I didn’t even kill the Cashiarn you guys did.”  
“Does it matter?” They laid like that in silence, both contemplating their pasts till the sun broke through over the horizon. They stayed still till they could both feel Ianto starting to stir. When he lifted his sleep filled eyes, he was staring into two sets of smiling eyes, one blue, one green.  
After breakfast they decided to head over to Tosh’s flat to gather Cali’s belongings. On the way back Cali was stretched out across the seat when she noticed they were no longer heading toward the flat.  
“Where are we going?” she asked sitting forward in her seat.  
“Shopping.” Ianto answered.  
“For?” Now that she had brought his attention to it Jack also noticed that they were not going the right way.  
“Furniture, I do not have enough drawers in the house for all of us, and truthfully a queen sized bed is not meant for three.”  
“Yan are you sure it’s such a good idea to take Jack shopping?”  
“What’s that mean?” Jack said turning around to face her.  
“I mean that you cause enough trouble in the supermarket let alone a furniture store.” She said with a smile.  
“Do not.”  
“You do Jack, however I figure we can all be mature about this.” Ianto said sending both of them a very pointed look.

So much for maturity, Cali thought as they paid for the new furniture to be delivered that night. They had been in the store for well over two hours, since Jack had decided that if the three of them were going to get a bed, then it had to be sturdy. He then proceeded to shake, jump on, and in some cases hang from, every frame available. Finally they had settled on a large California King size Slay style bed, which was made with gorgeous rough iron script work on both the head and foot board. The next 45 minute task that Jack had demanded was that they find the perfect mattress. To him this meant doing a quick run and jump before landing flat on his back, according to him you could judge everything one needed to know about a mattress from this. Finally with a mattress picked out it was time for Ianto to be picky in picking out dressers for each of them. Luckily his closet was big enough for both him and Jack to hang their stuff up with just enough room for Cali to hang her jeans. They ended up getting two nearly black stained bedside tables, a large eight drawer dresser, an eight drawer negligée chest, a full size mirror, and a bench for the end of the bed, all of which matched.  
“I am never going shopping with you two again.” Cali said as she slid back into the car.  
“Well we have one more stop; we need bedding for this new bed.” Ianto said sensibly.  
“Great, you two stay in the car this one’s mine, Ianto head this address.” When they got to the small store Cali ran in, she had been checking out the bedding store for just over a week, and had been planning on ordering a pair of sheets but figured now was as good a time as ever. Quickly she told the sales lady at the counter what she was looking for and was headed back to the car twenty minutes later with a large down comforter, six pillows, and four sets of bedding each of which included a duvet for the comforter, a flat sheet, a fitted sheet, and pillow cases.  
“Jeeze, how many sets of sheets did you get?” Jack asked eyes the arm loads of bags Cali was loading into the car.  
“Four sets and I also got a new comforter, and each of us two new pillows.” She said before shutting the hatch and climbing back in. “I still took less time than the two of you.”  
“So why did we have to go here?” Ianto asked as he pulled the SUV back on the road and finally headed toward home.  
“Because it’s the only place in all of Wales that sell silk sheets.” Cali said with a smile.  
“Did you say silk?” Both men asked.  
“Yup,” Cali answered with a smile, “It’s the one luxury I miss from home.”  
“Since when did the military provide silk sheets?” Jack asked.  
“I didn’t say my bunker I said home. We had silk sheets from the time we turned ten.” She said remembering the days of her youth.  
“You had silk sheets at ten?”  
“Well, my mother might have been military but my father was definitely the bread winner, he had his own tech store, he was actually the one who invented the bracelets that I’m wearing here.”  
“Right so you were a rich military brat.” Jack said rolling his eyes.  
“Oh shut up, besides, silk can be fun.” She said with a wink.


	11. Reset

Cali lounged against the railing next to Jack overlooking the autopsy of the newest arrival to the Hub when Ianto’s voice came in over the PA, “Jack, and your VIP visitor is here.” Suddenly Jack dashed out of the autopsy leaving everyone but Owen to stare after him in in confusion. Quickly Cali turned to follow Jack out, Tosh, Owen, and Gwen coming in behind her.  
“I didn’t realize we were having a visitor.” Gwen said in confusion.  
“Suddenly, in an underground Mortuary on a wet night in Cardiff, I hear the song of a nightingale.” Jack said with a smile plastered to his face as he waited for the cog door to open. The door rolled open to reveal a young woman in a black suit with a red top, a brief case over one shoulder and a bag in the other hand, behind her followed Ianto. “Miss Martha Jones!” Cali’s eyes darted to Ianto when Jack sent the guest a wink which she responded to with a room brightening smile. Quickly she moved up to where the Captain stood and dropped her bags to wrap her arms around him in a bone crushing hug.  
“Oh, it’s good to see you, Jack.”  
Jack came back laughing, “Toshiko, Owen, Gwen, Ianto, Cali-Ann, meet Martha.”  
“Just a casual visitor …” Owen asked as she picked her bags up and headed toward the med bay. Cali moved to stand by Ianto, wondering who this woman was.  
“I’m here to complete your post-mortem.” She said walking past him.  
“Dr. Jones is from UNIT.” Jack said, as if it explained everything before following her.  
“Oh, I’m sorry, sorry.” Gwen said moving to catch up with everyone, “I get a bit confused. Which one’s UNIT?”  
“Intelligence, military, cute red caps.” Cali tried not to smirk as Jack’s eyes lingered over Ianto when he mentioned the caps, “the acceptable face of intelligence gathering on aliens. We’re more as hoc, but better looking.” He called the last down to the young doctor who was standing in the main portion of the bay with Owen.  
After sending a quick smirk up to Jack Martha went to work. “I identified a pattern from UNIT’s data on sudden deaths.” She said pulling on a pair of gloves, “Toxic Shock, nothing to link the victims. Different ages, sexes, ethnic origins, occupations,” Owen watched her with a clinical eye as she pulled on a white coat to match his own over her pristine suit, “But there was a statistically significant concentration in South Wales.”  
“Come on, Martha, be honest.” Jack said, his charm and flirtation turned up to its maximum capacity. “You just came all this way to see me.”  
“Still struggling to conquer your shyness Jack?” she said as she looked over the body, causing Jack to chuckle.  
“So what about this pattern then, Dr. Jones?” Owen said stepping in and directing the conversation to business, for which Cali was extremely grateful.  
“They are being written off as suicides, or accidents.” She moved up to look into the eye of the victim before a smiling at Owen, “look. Puncture mark. Hypodermic needle. You’ll find his blood stream was pumped full of ammonium hydroxide.”  
“Yeah, bloodstream. That was the thing I was going to do next.” Owen said standing back his arms crossed.  
“Have you checked his medical records?” She asked.  
“No. I was just about to.” Cali and Ianto smirked at each other, neither quite trusting the way this woman flirted with Jack but loving how easily she was making Owen seem completely incompetent.  
“Let’s give it a go. You never know, Owen, you might learn something.”  
As everyone moved out of the med bay Cali followed Ianto to where he started his normal coffee making routine, “So who is she?”  
“No clue,” he said not turning away from his work, “never heard of her before Jack told me she was coming and even then just that it was a doctor from UNIT.”  
“They seem to know each other,” Cali couldn’t help the feeling that this Martha Jones, might even know Jack better than her or Ianto did.  
“My guess is he met her through The Doctor.” Ianto said finally turning to face her, “hey we have nothing to worry about, Jack’s not going anywhere.”  
“Did I say he was?” she asked smiling up at him.  
“You didn’t have to, the jealous girlfriend look in your eye said it all,” he said pressing a light kiss to her lips.  
“There was no jealous look.” she pouted following him out and moving to her station just as Martha and Jack retreated to his office. Soon Jack exited his office with Martha following behind.  
“I’m going to give the tour anyone want to accompany us?” he said his eyes rolling over his team, the only one to jump up from their work was Gwen. “No one else? Where’s Ianto?”  
“Up in the tourist office closing everything up, he left yours and Dr. Jones coffee in the kitchenette.” Cali responded as he turned back and forth at her station her eyes rolling over reports and moving them into one. With a shrug Jack turned to start the tour of the hub.  
As they exited the hot house Gwen turned to look at the young Doctor, “Um, so…. You know Jack pretty well then?” she asked remembering the look in Cali and Ianto’s eyes at the camaraderie they had seen displayed.   
“Oh we were only together for a few days, but it was pretty intense.” Gwen’s pulse quickened, if Cali and Ianto found out that Jack had brought in an old lover, well let’s just say Ianto would be only a bit more discreet in his displeasure by putting Jack on instant decafe for who knows how long. She had to make sure.  
“You mean…”  
“Oh, God, no, no!” Gwen tried not to sigh in relief, “Not that sort of intense. No. Nothing like that.” The two giggled at the implication, “Why are you and him…”  
“No, no, not at all!” Gwen said, “Engaged to the other doctor on the premises” she said holing up her hand.  
“We must be the only two people on the planet.”  
“Not any more, I think he’s finally gone over Ianto and Cali.”  
“Both of them?” Martha asked in surprise.  
“Oh yeah, the three have even been living together for about a month now, it’s kind of sweet I must say.”  
Finally getting impatient Jack called out to them “Oi! You talking about me?”  
“No, no. we were just discussing alien flora, weren’t we?” Gwen asked as they came out of the hot house.  
“Oh yeah.”  
“She’s no fun.” Jack said raising an eyebrow, “Raise your game, girls.”  
Soon they were back around everyone else and Gwen moved back to her station. “You’ve got some well weird kot” Martha said picking up the as of yet unknown Alien artifact that was sitting next to Gwen’s desk, “What’s this?”  
“Be careful.” Jack said coming up behind her, “It’s an alien artifact.”  
“Yeah. There’s a lot of argument about this,” Owen said emerging from his domain, “but for my money it’s got to be a surgical instrument.”  
“Really?” Suddenly Martha’s interest peaked.  
“He’s guessing,” Jack said rolling his eyes, “typical medic.”  
“Okay, right, well I call it a singularity scalpel.” He said as he started to turn a few of the dials, “see what it does is it concentrates energy on a tiny fixed point,” Gwen’s gaze flicked over to meet Cali’s where the two girls rolled their eyes, Owen had been practically bouncing in anticipation to pitch his theory to someone new for a week. “Without damaging anything on the way. It’s brilliant.”  
“It’s amazing.”  
“Yeah do you remember the last time you did that, Owen, and …” Gwen let her sentence trail off, hoping her fiancé might have learned that he did not in fact know how to operate the item in his hand.  
“Yes, right, now, all we’re going to do is,” he placed a cup on the stand that the artifact had been, “we’re going to vaporize this paper” he said crumpling up a piece of paper and tossing it in the cup, “without even scorching the cup.”  
“This is going to end in tears.” Jack loudly whispered into Martha’s ear before pulling her back from where the cup was. Cali could already feel the laughter starting to bubble up as she slid her chair over by Tosh.  
“Okay.” Owen said as he started futzing with the item in his hand. Quickly Gwen slid her chair back from her desk, so she too was out of the line of fire. Suddenly Cali saw Ianto walking up toward the group but before she could say anything, a small item behind Ianto blew causing him to duck while letting out a quick scream, before standing up and glaring at Owen. Cali couldn’t help herself and nearly fell out of her chair laughing.  
“Oh, I haven’t quite got the calibration right yet.” Soon everyone but Ianto and Owen were laughing.  
“Jack,” his tone quickly sobering everyone, “there’s been another attack. Assault with a hypodermic. Only this time, the victim survived. Woman, aged 27, she’s in the hospital. Medical records wiped, just like the others.” Quickly the team launched into action. Jack, Gwen and Martha going to talk to the victim while the others stayed behind. 

When the three walked back in about an hour later Martha headed down to the Med bay where her and Owen started processing samples. Soon the whole team was called into Jack’s office for a briefing.  
“Locally we’ve got a murder victim and a survivor. Both attacked with hypodermics, both with their medical records wiped.”  
“And more cases across the UK.” Martha added, “We think the point of the attacks is to destroy evidence of their medical condition.”  
“Gwen, Ianto, pursue the criminal investigation. Martha and Owen will follow up with the medical side. Tosh, Cali, any luck in retrieving those medical records?” Cali nodded for Tosh to answer.  
“Not yet, we’re gonna have to dig down into the system memories, see if we can find any remnant of deleted or temporary files.”  
“Completely illegal, of course.” Cali said with an excited smirk.  
“Do what you have to. We’re not dealing with a freak with some kind of needle fetish, this is a conspiracy.” Jack said dismissing his team.  
“Ianto, the police have found another Body in Heath Park. From the initial report, it’s got all the hallmarks of the other attacks.” Tosh said into the Comms  
“I’ll get Gwen,” Ianto’s voice said into their ears, “Head out there now.”

About an hour later Gwen and Ianto walked back into the Hub, Gwen going over to relay their findings to Jack, Owen, and Martha while Ianto came over and did the same with Cali and Tosh. He had just finished telling them about the student in the woods when his phone rang.  
“Ianto Jones Speaking…. Yes…. I see… right away.” Cali turned to look at him as he reached his hand up to trigger the Comms, “Martha, call from the hospital. Marie’s had some sort of seizure.” Quickly Martha was by his side, ready for more details. “They want you and Owen over there right away, says she collapsed.”  
“Right.” Cali watched as Martha headed toward the hot house where Owen was. A few minutes later, they were both walking out, medical bags in hand.   
“Ianto,” Gwen said coming into the room, “How do you feel about going back to college?” she asked with a smile.  
“I didn’t enjoy it the first time, but I’m guessing you aren’t here to ask me to take an algebra class with you.”  
“No, I found Barry’s roommate, we get to go talk to him.”  
“Is there a better way to spend the day?” he asked dryly before the two of them headed out.

About an hour Ianto’s voice filled everyone’s ears, “Owen, there’s something you should know.”  
“What?” Owen grouched back.  
“Barry Leonard is said to have recovered from diabetes.” Cali flashed Tosh a look, who shook her head in confusion.  
“Thanks, Ianto.”  
“Since when, is there a cure from Diabetes?” Cali asked the team.  
“There isn’t” Owen replied.

When Owen and Martha returned to the Hub they quickly gathered everyone into the board room. “This, folks, is a molecular model of the drug we found in Marie’s blood.” Owen said.  
“She’s called it reset.” Martha continued.  
“So what does it do?” Ianto asked, sounding just as confused as everyone else looked.  
“Right, think about when you run a virus scan through your computer, yeah? The software works its way through the files and when it finds a Trojan or a virus or whatever, identifies it and them it deletes it. That is what this stuff does to the human body. But it’s not just viruses, its harmful bacteria, toxin, you name it. It’s like the body’s been turned back to its factory settings.” Owen answered.  
“It’s the ultimate magic bullet. Supersedes anything and everything in the pharmacological armory.” Martha said.  
“But that would be the greatest medical discovery in history.” Gwen said still sounding confused.  
“Exactly.” Martha said with a smile, “Except it comes bundled with a lethal alien parasite.”  
“Ah, not so good a discovery.” Jack said.  
“The parasite needs a healthy body until it’s incubated. So the parasite egg incorporates this magic bullet, which puts everything in the system back to its factory settings.”  
“Reset. Neat-o” Jack said sounding a little less than amused. “So who runs the Pharm?”  
“Well the public image is innocent enough.” Ianto said flipping through the documents Tosh and Cali had gathered, “Private-public partnership between the government and a consortium of pharmaceutical companies. Research and developing cutting-edge biotechnology.”  
“Their IT systems are way more cutting edge than they need to be.” Cali said with a snort.  
“Plus they’ve got seemingly unrestricted security clearance.” Tosh informed the group.  
“Which means they’d have the capability to erase medical records if they wanted to.” Martha said coming to the same conclusion as Tosh and Cali had.  
“Exactly.” The two girl said together.  
“Who runs this outfit?” Jack asked.  
“The Institute Director is a Dr. Aaron Copley.” Cali said as Ianto reached over to press a button bring up his profile.  
“Yeah, I know his work.” Owen said, “He’s one of the most respected research scientists in his field.”  
“Harvard Graduate, did research at Cambridge.” Ianto read off the profile, “Last job, Harvard Professor of Molecular Pharmacology. Came to the UK to set up the Pharm.”  
“He’s kinda handsome, too.” Jack said making Cali roll her eyes, “Do you think he’ll like visitors?”

Soon Jack, Owen and Cali were in the SUV on the way to the Pharm. When they pulled up a man walked over with a clipboard.  
“Torchwood.” Was all Jack said.

“I’m sorry you’ve had a wasted journey, Mr. Harker.” Dr. Copley said, making Cali’s eyebrow raise.  
“Harkness. And its Captain,” Cali could tell that Jack knew the man had been purposely insulting, “but you can call me Jack.”  
“Captain?” the man responded in an amused tone, “where did you park you boat?”  
Jack laughed, “I like a man with a sense of humor.” Jack said looking up at a less than a mused Cali, “Know any good gags about clinical trial?”  
“Well, Jack, none of these faces mean anything to me.” The man said flipping through the pages, “and as the Institute Director, I would have met them personally had they been our trial subjects.”  
“Dr. Copley ….”  
“Professor, actually.” The man said cutting Jack, off.  
It took every ounce of military training for Cali to keep the smirk off her face as Jack stood up and leaned over the desk. “But I can call you Aaron, right? See, this is a little awkward two of these people were murdered.” Jack said spreading out the pictures, “Another died of a parasitic infection of alien origin. And one of the victims mentioned your organization’s name shortly before she died.”  
“Alien origin? That’s preposterous.” Dr. Copley calming stated.  
“Eh, Professor,” Cali said, not able to stay quiet any longer, “Now if there was a drug, that could, say, restore the human body back to its, oh, factory settings, as it were, you would know about it, right?”  
“You’re right, Miss-“  
“Lieutenant, actually, Lieutenant Cali-Ann Mason and please do not call me Cali.” Cali said with a smirk.  
“Lieutenant Mason, then, you’re right I would. But nothing like that exists.”  
“I had a boyfriend whose nostrils flared when he was lying.” Jack turned and said to Cali, before turning back to the professor.  
‘I’m already late for my next appointment.” He said standing up from behind his desk.  
“You go ahead. We’ll have a look around.” Jack said striding forward.   
“Well, obviously our research suites are classified, so we can’t grant you access to those, but we’d be delighted to give you the PR tour.”  
“Well that just seems so special now doesn’t it Captain?”  
“Yeah, however, Normally Aaron, we go where we like.” Jack informed the older man  
“Not here, actually.” Cali could swear she could hear a smirk in the man’s tone, “Ask Whitehall. We’re fireproof.”  
“Yeah. I had a bad experience with a politician recently. I tend not to listen to Whitehall anymore.” This time Cali let the smirk fill her face.  
“Let me get someone to guide you back to your vehicle.” He said picking up the phone.  
As they were escorted back to the SUV and Owen, Jack turned to Cali, “Was it me or was he a little touchy?”  
“Yeah, so much for the polite approach.” Cali said rolling her eyes, “we need to turn this place over.” She said sliding in Behind to Jack.  
Suddenly Jack’s Vortex Manipulator beeped, “Oh, yeah. According to these readings this place has the highest concentration of alien life forms this side of the rift. Grey is so not her color.” Jack said after passing a look at their blonde escort.  
“Nor his.” Cali said flatly.  
“Learn anything?” Owen asked pulling the SUV away from the curb.  
“Just that, he was trying very hard to both hide something and insult me” Jack said, “nice playing the rank card back there by the way.” He said glancing back at Cali.  
“yeah well, I’ve already learned that in this time period men have a tendency to walk all over you if you let them , and I figured since you two were being so buddy, buddy with the first names I was going to make sure he remembered the cold hearted bitch.”

Cali stood next to Tosh as she worked over the Pharm mainframe. “I can’t hack in there, Jack.” She finally said turning to look at Jack who was standing at Cali’s station, “And if I keep on trying, with a brute-force approach, they’ll know they’re under attack.”  
“An alien life form is preying on the human bloodstream.” He said with a sigh, “I need a way in there.”  
“Jack she’s right and you know it,” Cali said stepping forward, “if we keep going like this, they will make it even harder and we will never break the system we have to find another way.”  
“Tosh, I’ve got the results of that research.” Ianto called out as he made his way into the main area, “on the screen now.” He said as it popped onto her monitor.  
“Ianto, that’s brilliant!” Cali said smiling over at him.  
“They’re in the market for volunteers.” Tosh informed the rest of the group.  
“That’s understandable, given their wastage rate.” Jack said.  
“Then one of us goes in undercover.” Gwen voiced everyone’s thoughts.  
“No.” Jack vetoed immediately, “we don’t know enough about the working of that place. Too many things could go wrong.”  
“Unless you were to put a medic in there.” Martha said, “Someone who knew what to look for.”  
“I don’t know,” Owen said, “I mean, I can’t do it. They know me now, don’t they?” Owen said.  
“I know it’s hard to believe, Owen, but I wasn’t thinking of you.” Martha said glancing at him before looking directly at Jack.  
“No way.”  
“Come on, Jack.” She said, “I’ve been in worse places. And you know it.”  
“Jack if she’s with UNIT then she has some sort of military training,” Cali said stepping up next to the other woman, “it would be like sending me and Owen in, twice the smarts, half the risk.”  
Jack looked around at his team, Owen shaking his head, the others just standing back passively, “Okay.” He turned and strode from the room, Owen hot on his heels. The others turning to start getting information together for Martha.  
Cali walked over to her station and started drawing up identification paperwork.  
“Thank you.” Martha said walking over.  
“For what?” Cali asked distractedly.  
“For standing with me back there, helping me to convince Jack.”  
“All I did is what needed to be done, and he would have given in even without me stepping up.”  
“Still thank you.” Martha said before turning away.  
“Martha?” Cali said turning from her work station. “Is there something between you and Jack?” Cali couldn’t help it, but the easy way the two of them seemed to have made her slightly envious.  
“No, and there never was,” Martha said turning back to the other woman, “the only thing that would have ever been between us was the admiration of the same man, and the saving of a planet.”  
“Right.”  
“You have nothing to worry about.” Martha said setting a hand on Cali’s shoulder, “I thought I had seen Jack in love, when we were with the Doctor, but that has nothing on the way he looks at you and Ianto.” She assured before walking away.


	12. Reset Part 2

“Okay. These are the plans for the Pharm’s building.” Ianto said to Martha, “From what Jack and Owen saw, they reckon that the main house contains Copley’s office, medical research suites, and the accommodation for the clinical trial subjects.”  
“What about the buildings at the rear?”  
“Restricted area, fenced off, armed security. Jack thinks that’s where the reading of the alien life forms came from.”  
“Cool!”  
“Very,” Cali said walking down to the med bay.  
“But you don’t need to go anywhere near there.” Ianto said looking pointedly at Martha.  
“Spoilsport.”  
“Don’t worry, I’ll get you a t-shirt when I break in.” Cali said with a wink  
“The first thing you need to do is get yourself accepted as a clinical trial subject.” Ianto said, trying in vain to keep them on track. “Don’t try too hard. Don’t draw too much attention to yourself.”  
“Be invisible. I can do that.” Martha responded.  
“Once you’re in, we need you to gain access to the Pharm’s IT systems, close down the system firewalls and security protocols.”  
“That way Tosh and I can gain access to the files.” Cali said, “And see what they’re really up to.”  
“Industrial espionage, it’s very civilized.”  
“We try,” Cali replied with a wink, “All of her new documents are ready and waiting Jack’s office.” She said, “I should get back up there with Tosh, have fun.”  
Ianto and Martha watched her go, “Once you’ve done that, get out.” Ianto said getting back to business, “don’t take any unnecessary risks.”  
“Understood.”  
“Cool.”  
“So,” Martha looked down not sure if she could look Ianto in the eyes for this conversation, “Jack asked me if I could get you a UNIT cap to wear.” Looking back up she caught the surprise on Ianto’s shocked expression.  
“Did he?” he asked with a nervous chuckle, “well, red is my color.” He said turning to walk back into the main portion of the Hub, hoping to avoid the pending conversation.  
“So am I right in thinking that you and he ….” She let the sentence trail off.  
Ianto stopped and looked down at Martha, “We dabble.”  
“Yeah?” Martha would be lying if she said she wasn’t at all curious what Captain Jack Harkness was like in bed.  
“Yeah.” Ianto would be damned if he talk details about his sex life with anyone.  
“So what’s his dabbling like?” Martha pushed.  
“Innovative.”  
“Really?”  
“Bordering on the Avant Garde.”  
“Wow.”  
“Oh yeah.” Suddenly Ianto was pulled out of his thoughts by a crash from up above, “what was that?” he asked heading up.  
When they got up to the main level they found Cali pulling herself back onto her chair, body still trembling with laughter and a few tears leaking out of her eyes. She looked up and locked eyes with Ianto before falling into a new fit of giggles.  
Ianto turned to look at Martha, “So, shall we get your cover story completely sorted out?”  
“Absolutely.”  
Quickly they made their way into Jack’s office, who looked up, an eye brow quirked wondering what had happened down below. Ianto just shook his head as Tosh and Cali made her way into the office behind them, shoulders still shaking slightly with silent laughter. Ianto moved to start going through the items on Jacks desk.  
He grabbed a clear bag that held a few cards, “Fake ID.” He said handing it to Martha, “First name Samantha, thought the Jones would be safe.”  
“Okay, how do I stay in touch?” She asked glancing down at the bag.  
“Communication’s very tricky. The whole place could be wired.” Tosh said, “We don’t want you chattering away to us and being overheard.”  
“But I want to monitor you at all times.” Jack said, still not completely loving this plan.  
“So?” Martha asked, slightly confused on what the plan was. Cali held out a small box with a pair of contacts in them. “I don’t need contact lenses.”  
“You need these.” Cali said with a smirk, excitement painting her voice. Her and Tosh had been working on these for about two months now, and the thought that they would finally be used had her giddy. “Come on we’ll show you.”  
They all headed down stairs where Gwen and Owen sat. Quickly Owen helped Martha to put the lenses in before stepping back, “okay.”  
It only took a few minutes for Martha to realize just how special the lenses where, “oh! I’m a camera!” she said excitedly.  
“As Chris Isherwood once said to me when we were cruising the Kurfurstendamn.” Jack said making every one roll their eyes.  
“And we can text.” Cali said swiveling around to face her computer. She typed a quick message to Martha.  
“Wow!”  
“Power comes from the body heat, so they only work when you’re wearing them.” Tosh said.  
“Yeah so you have to wear them everywhere.” Owen said with a smirk, earning him a quick smack from Gwen.  
“Well, I’ll be doing some things with my eyes shut then.”  
“In case of an emergency we can speak directly to you.” Jack said bringing the group back on track.  
“The lens will communicate with you sensory-neuro receptors,” Cali said, “bypassing the auditory system.”  
“But can’t there signals be intercepted?”  
“Alien technology. Which exploits a solution to the EPR Paradox.” Ianto answered.  
“Oh, quantum entanglement of remote particles? Okay, cool.” Martha said with a nod.  
“Did I mention she was brilliant?” Jack asked with a grin.

They all sat in the boardroom, the contact camera hooked up to the large screen, a keyboard placed in front of Tosh, waiting for Martha to arrive at the Pharm. Cali Paced the back of the room as they listened to the nurse explain to Martha about the blood tests. The one thing she was never very good at was patience, it was the only thing she was every marked at as only satisfactory. She was more the action type; recon was so not her thing.  
“I don’t think there will be any problem with that, I’m very conscious of health issues.” They all heard Martha say, Cali whipped around to face the screen, panic rising in each of them. Quickly Tosh started typing. “My mum’s a nurse.” She covered quickly, and they all let out a quick sigh of relief. Suddenly the door opened and Professor Copley walked in.  
“Tell her to get close to Copley.” Jack instructed.  
“I see you are a post grad student Samantha, what are you studying?”  
“Creative writing, so I really need the cash.” Martha answered easily.  
“Well I’m sure you’ll understand Samantha, we have a lot of applicants.”  
“Whoa, tell her not to lose him,” Jack said standing from his seat.  
“We’ll let you know in due course.” The Professor said turning toward the door.  
Martha took a moment to read the message Tosh sent her before pushing out of her seat, “Actually there’s something I should have told you.”  
“Oh yes?”  
“What the hell is she doing?” Cali said stepping forward.  
“It’ll show up in the test results anyway,” suddenly they heard the shake in Martha’s voice, “I did have a hepatitis infection.”  
“No, no, no, she’s bullshitting.” Owen said shaking his head, “it’s her way in.”  
“I’m mean I’m fine now.” She said, her voice begging them to believe her. “But it stays in the blood. Strictly speaking it’s incurable, right?”  
“Well, that puts a different complexion on things. We could use a subject with hepatitis. Are you available to start right now?”  
“Well, sure I’ve brought my overnight things.”  
“Then all we need is your signature on this confidentiality agreement.”  
“She’s in.” Gwen said, and a wave of relief swept through the group.  
“As Chris Isherwood also said, it’s not the getting in, “Jack said, “it’s the getting out.”  
“That’s what we’re here for.” Cali said placing a hand on his arm.  
“She’s right,” Ianto said stepping up to his other side, “nothing is going to happen to her Jack.”  
“I know, and that’s why we are going to take shifts watching her, I don’t want the camera unattended at any till we have Martha back to the hub, we’ll watch in shifts, two at a time. Owen, Gwen can you two take the first shift, Tosh and Cali the next, and me and Ianto will take the third. We’ll go on three hour rotations. Until we have this settled nothing else matters. I’ll call Archie at Torchwood 2 and have him on alert to take any other issues.”  
“You got it.” Tosh said standing up to let Gwen and Owen sit down at her station.  
“I’ll head down and grab some of the bedding so you guys can crash on the couch.” Cali said, knowing Ianto, Jack and herself, would sleep in the bunk, for what little time they would sleep.  
“Thank you.” Tosh said sending her a smile.  
“Well let’s let her settle in, it’s going to be a long night ahead.” Owen said as he slid his arm over Gwen’s shoulders.   
Owen was right when he said it would be a long night, it wasn’t until about ten minutes before Cali and Tosh’s shift ended that Martha finally left her room. “Jack, Yan, she’s on the move.” Cali said into the coms system.   
“Be careful.” Tosh quickly typed to Martha, as they all felt their heart rate raise just a little. Just as Jack and Ianto came to stand behind them Martha came to the administration door, only to find it locked.  
“Tosh, can you get us past this?” Ianto asked.  
“Easy peasy.” Tosh answered even as her fingers flew over the keys of the keyboard. “She just needs to get the lenses within the EPR field.”  
“Right.” Cali said moving to tell Martha to look closer. Just as the access code started to fill in, Martha turned to look the way she came. “Think she hears something?”  
“Or someone.” Jack said. As soon as Martha had the door unlocked she slid inside, leaving the lights in the room off. Soon she moved behind the desk and sat in front of the computers.  
“Tosh can you help her hack her way into the computer system?” Cali asked.  
“It’ll take time to talk her through it.” Tosh answered  
“No we don’t have time, “Jack replied, “I want her out of that office.”  
“Well if I can get her to give me remote control of the computer …” they all watched as Tosh expertly gave Martha instructions and a few seconds later, “I have control.”   
“We’ve never seen a species like that before.” Ianto said as the specks of the parasite along with pictures filled the screens.  
“It’s beautiful.” Tosh said, her voice filled with awe.  
“It’s lethal.” Cali said.  
“But what is Copley doing with them?” Jack voiced everyone’s thought. “Tell Martha that now that we have control we can download it and go through it all here. It’s time for her to get out of there pronto.”  
“Tosh you have that code breaker soft wear?” Cali asked as she started to sort the data as it came in.  
“I’m sending a patch through now.”  
“Thank you.” As Ianto watched Martha make her way back through the building Jack walked over to the couch to wake Gwen ad Owen up, knowing they would need all hands on deck if god forbid something go wrong. Suddenly on the screen they all saw a red light start to flash. Martha moved over to a window where they saw several armed guards moving out. Ianto quickly ordered Martha to get herself to safety, and watched as she promptly opened one of the windows and climbed out.  
“Jack I’ve got the list of the clinical trial subjects here.” Cali called out.  
“Meredith Roberts, Marie Thomas, Barry Leonard, all three murder victims.” He said leaning over her shoulder. “Oh who is BD?” he asked as a small banner popped up.  
“Executive Actions?” Cali read of as she opened it.  
“Old CIA terminology for assassinations.” They said together.  
“The pharm are running their own hitman.” Jack said, “Which is kind of unusual for a medical research facility.”  
“Wait a minute. There’s a name here that we haven’t seen before, Elin Morgan.” Cali said opening the profile, “she hasn’t been reported missing or dead,”  
“She soon will be,” Jack said “Take Ianto and pull her in.”  
“You got it boss,” Cali said standing up and setting her hand on Yan’s shoulder, “let’s go pull in an experiment hey?” she said smiling down at him.  
As they left Owen and Gwen sat down in their places, just in time for Owen to see Martha follow a team of soldiers into a fenced off area.  
“What the hell is she doing? If the Pharm have their own Hitman God knows what they are capable of.”  
“And I put her in there.” Jack said suddenly the camera went blank.  
“Shit.” Owen said promptly moving back to allow Tosh access.  
“What was that?” Jack demanded.  
“Radiation surge? We lost her signal.” Tosh‘s fingers flew over the keys in desperation, “I can’t get her back.”  
“We have to get her out of there.” Gwen said moving to stand with the rest of them.  
“That place is swamped in security. If we try and steam in we’ll be putting her at risk.” Tosh said.  
“We can’t just leave her in there can we?” Owen said.  
“If I can’t get her signal back in thirty minutes, then we think of alternatives.”  
“Anything could be happening to her in there.” Gwen turned as if pleading with Jack.  
“Martha can handle herself. She’s been in worse situations than this.”  
“Sure about that?” Owen knew how this would sit on Jack’s conscience if anything happened t the UNIT doctor.

On their way across town Cali started working on the in car computer. “What’s that?” Ianto asked.  
“Billy Davis’s mobile.” Cali answered, “Shit, he’ll be at Elin’s flat in three minutes.”  
“And we will be there in two.” Ianto said quickly pushing the SUV faster. When they reached the building they both quickly made their way into the flat, and making their way back to the bedroom, Cali pushing through first, gun drawn. In the room they found Billy already sitting on the bed, with a needle out, “Hands above your head.” Cali said, “Up.” as he stood up. She reached forward and plucked the needle from his hands seconds before Ianto moved in to taze him.  
“Jack, we’ve got Billy Davis. He could help get you into the Pharm.” Ianto reported over the Coms as Cali moved to check on the woman in the bed.  
“What about the woman is she ok?”  
“Looks fine, a little stunned, “Cali said standing up.  
“Retcon her and then bring him back.  
“You got it.” Soon they were on their way back to the Hub, Billy Davis tied snuggly in the boot. Once back to the hub they moved him down to the vaults and strapped him into a chair while they waited for him to wake up.

“I got terrible guts.” Billy said as they watched Owen moving around him, “Don’t know what it is.”  
“Bad conscience, Billy.” Jack said, “Try confessing.”  
“Get stuffed.” The captive bit out.  
“Okay let’s do this the hard way.” Jack said moving away from the door he was standing by, giving the signal for Ianto to open the door and let a leashed Janet out.  
“Merciful Christ, What the…” Billy cut himself off by screaming as Janet ran toward him.  
“They have a tendency to act up.” Jack said into the frightened man’s ear.  
“I’m losing her.” Ianto said as he held the chain attached to Janet.  
“Please!” The man Pleaded fighting his bindings with everything he was worth.  
“Something to Say, Billy?” Cali asked walking a wide birth around the Weevil.  
“Yeah whatever you want. Just get it away from me! Get it off me!” he begged. Quickly Ianto moved in front of Janet with the repellent and backed her back to her cell.  
“Ok Billy you’ve been on a killing spree, why?” jack asked moving to stand in front of the man again.  
“I work for the Pharm.” He answered, “They’ve been giving people this Reset drug. But there were these side effects. Parasites or something. They were going to die anyway so I had to get rid of them before any weird symptoms showed up in public.”  
“Okay Billy, we’re going into the Pharm and you’re going to front up for us.” Jack said with a smile.  
“Yeah, yeah, but my stomach, my stomach.” Suddenly the man was panting in pain, his head thrown back. Then he started to convulse his mouth filling with blood.  
“Owen we need him alive.” Jack ordered as the medic jumped into action.  
“Yeah, all right. I’m flying blind here Jack.”  
“Do something.”  
“Let’s start with this.” He said grabbing the singularity scalpel and moving to stand in front of the man. “Okay I’ve got it, got the calibrations right. I can get it out of him.” But before the doctor could do anything a large thing burst from the man’s midsection tumbling to the floor.  
“My God. Owen Deal with it.” Jack ordered. “Still sure you had those calibrations right?” Jack asked sarcastically.  
“I’m sorry, all right.” Owen said as he moved and picked up the creature with a pair of tongs. “He must have breathed in larva when one of his victims died. This could have been me or Martha.” Quickly he placed the thing into a container and closed it.  
“Let’s get this cleaned up.” Jack ordered. 

“Ianto what have you done with Billy Davis’s Body?” Tosh asked ten minutes later as they resurfaced.  
“I was just about to dispose of it why?”  
“I thought of a way we can use him to get us into the Pharm.” She hit a few more keys before stepping over and letting them see. “Clever, huh?”  
“Oh you are warped on the inside.” Cali said with a chuckle, giving her friend a quick hug.  
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”  
“How do you think of these things?” Ianto asked as he turned to go get the body.

When they all piled out of the SUV at the Pharm Jack turned to face his team, “Tosh, Gwen, Ianto, check out Zone A. Owen, Cali we’re going after Martha. Let’s go.” They all moved out Cali and Owen following closely behind Jack. They moved quickly through the building, checking each room till they got to the one that Martha had had her first exam in. Jack burst through the door Gun drawn, “Hands above your head! What have you done to her?” he demanded as his eyes fell to Martha who was strapped to a table.  
“Tell me that’s not Reset!” Owen said eyeing the IV slowly dripping into Martha.  
“She survived the larval stage. The only subject ever to do so.” Excitement clear in the doctor’s voice. “It’s fascination. Turns out these bugs practice sibling cannibalism. Only the strongest individual is left now. God knows what happens next”  
“Put a stop to this!” Cali begged as he moved around Martha helping Owen.  
“I can’t I don’t know how.” Cali had a feeling that before they left the Doctor’s life would be over, especially when Martha started whimpering lightly, the skin on her stomach rolling.  
“Jack, this things killing her.” Owen said looking up at the Captain, “I don’t know what I can do.”  
“Owen stay calm. There has got to be something.”  
“Jack, I can give you a report on Zone A” Ianto’s voice filled their ears form the coms unit. “They’re holding dozens of creatures captive down here. They seem to be using them as test subjects. ”  
“Understood Ianto. Tell Tosh to go for total shutdown.” Jack responded. “This place is a torture chamber.” He said looking at the Doctor.  
“I don’t need to debate medical ethics with you.”  
“You abused the Mayflies. You turned them into parasites” Cali said turning on the doctor, rage in her eyes.  
“We didn’t understand how the mayflies reproduced. We tried to limit the damage.”  
“What by murdering people?” Jack asked as Cali turned back to help Owen.  
“They were going to die anyway. We’re on the edge of the greatest discovery in history. It’s got to be worth a few sacrifices. You must understand that, jack. You’re involved in alien research.”  
“Not like this. I’m closing this place down.”  
“In you’re dreams. This is a state of the art official facility.”  
“Oh I’m not going to do it by sending a memo. We’re in control of your IT systems. As we speak we’re crashing your databanks, wiping your records.”  
“That’s cyber-terrorism.”  
“And that’s just for starters. We’re going to trip the systems of your fire, radiation and biohazard safety networks. The power will cut, sprinklers will be activated, and a large part of this facility will be sealed and flooded with inert gases.” Jack continued as Cali looked up at Owen who had pulled out the Singularity Scalpel.  
“Are you sure you can do this?” Cali asked, placing her hand on his arm.  
“I have to be.” He said meeting her eyes. She gave him an understanding nod and stepped back.  
“The aliens will die.”  
“They are already dying. This way they’ll be put out of their misery.”  
“For God’s sake we’re on the same side.”  
“No Combating hostile aliens is one thing, but this is slavery, exploitation, a war crime.”  
“Jack we need your help.” Cali said as Martha started to convulse.  
“What the hell are you doing to her?” he asked helping Cali to hold her body down.  
“This is the only way we’re going to save Martha. I think I understand how it works.”  
“You’d better be sure because it’s never worked before.”  
“We need it to this time Jack,” Cali said meeting his eyes, “it’s the only way to save her.”  
“Owen are you sure it’s safe?”  
“Okay guys.”  
“Owen tell me you’re sure. You could kill her with that thing.”  
“We’re losing her.” Cali said prompting the boys to get a move on. Just as Owen pressed the buttons, Martha sat straight up gasping before collapsing back, her heart stopping.  
“What have you done?” Jack asked. Martha’s heart started beating as the final word left his mouth.  
“Oh bloody hell it worked.” Owen said in amazement.  
“Thank God for that.” Jack said as he moved to help Martha up.  
“Let’s get her out of here.” Cali said. Moving to take point gun out as Jack and Owen Supported Martha.  
“I’m prescribing rest and recuperation for you, madam.” Owen said taking all of Martha’s weight so jack could move ahead, and Cali fell back covering them from behind. “And a few days in bed.” Soon they were all back at the SUV.  
“Do it.” Jack ordered Tosh. “Ok let’s go.”  
“Did you really think I was going to let you just walk away?” Dr. Copley asked, appearing suddenly, a gun pointed at the group. “You’ve ruined everything I’ve ever worked for.”  
“Now let’s not be stupid, okay?” Owen asked positioning himself in front of Martha, hands held out, “we’re both rational men, scientists. I know you don’t want to shoot.” Cali’s hand itched to pull the trigger as she aimed past Owen at the doctor. Suddenly a shot was heard and Owen collapsed. The first shot was echoed by several others and the doctor crumbled to the floor.  
“Owen!” Martha yelled as she dropped next to him.  
“Let’s get him in the SUV.” Jack said, as him and Ianto moved to lift their fallen comrade.  
“Gwen” Cali walked over to the shocked Welsh woman. ”Gwen he’s going to be fine, now I need you to get in the SUV and help clear our path back to the hub. Do you understand?”  
“Yes.”   
“Good. Cali climbed into the back with Martha and Owen, “Martha what do you need me to do?”  
“What training do you have?”  
“Assistant field medic.”  
“It’ll work.”

Four hours later Cali and Martha came up from the Med bay where Owen was resting in medically induced stupor. Cali walked over to Jack and Ianto while Martha went to talk to Gwen who was being consoled by Tosh.  
“How is he?” Jack asked wrapping his arms around her.  
“Alive, sleeping, and Martha is giving him a double dose blood infusion.” She said in exhaustion.   
“You were wonderful.” Ianto said coming up behind her and sliding his arms around her to entangle with Jack’s. “Where did you learn to act as a nurse like that?”  
“It was my secondary study at the academy, my mother always told me it was a good skill to have.”  
“Well it certainly came in handy.” Jack said kissing her hair.  
“Well it looks like your Doctor is out of commission for a while.” Martha said coming over.  
“Thank you, I don’t think we would have saved him without you here.” Jack said hugging her.  
“Well why don’t you three go home, I’ll stay here to keep an eye on him and I’m sure Gwen won’t leave either.”  
“Well there’s a bed under my office if one of you wants to sleep there.  
“Thanks I’ll send her there and I’ll take the couch.  
“Call if you need me to come back.” Cali said as she hugged her new friend.  
“Go home.” Martha replied with a smile. Slowly the trio made their way out, Cali was fast asleep by the time they made it to the flat.


	13. Daddy

Cali-Ann Lounged back on the couch in the Hub her head hanging over the arm as she read the latest rift reports and her feet resting across Ianto’s lap. She grinned hearing Owen bitch to Martha as she pushed and prodded at his healing chest wound. Absently she slid the old silver pocket watch from her pock and rolled it through her fingers.  
“Oi, Jack what is it with you and shagging people with a fascination with round silver objects?” Owen said as he came out of the bay, “it was bad enough with Tea Boy and his Stop Watch, but now she has a pocket Watch?” Cali rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at him. Martha stopped in her tracks as her eyes locked onto the pocket watch.  
“Don’t be jealous Owen; you and your silver instruments are more than welcome to join us.” Jack said with his normal cocky smirk leaning against the rail. He fought to keep his smile from going soft as he looked at the two on the couch.   
“Jack, can I talk to you?” Martha said briskly walking up the steps to his office, “like now, in privet.” Thinking something was wrong with Owen Jack quickly stepped inside and closed the door.  
“What’s wrong Martha?” Jack said his eyes searching hers for answers.  
“I think we should call The Doctor.” She said easing a hip onto his desk, preparing to explain just why it was extremely important to call The Doctor.  
“Not that I wouldn’t mind seeing him again,” Jacks mind flashed back to the look in Ianto’s Eyes anytime The Doctor is mentioned, “but I don’t think that is a good idea.” He said crossing his arms, ready to fight to keep his lover happy.  
“Jack, you don’t understand,” well might as well say it Jones; Martha thought to herself, “I think Cali-Ann is a Time Lord.”  
“What are you talking about Martha,” Jack’s eyes narrowed in suspicion of his friend.  
“That Pocket watch that she has, all Time Lords have them; it allows them to become Human. The Doctor has one and so did the Master.” She pushed away from the desk pleading him with her eyes to believe her, “Don’t you remember Jack?”  
Despite wanting to deny it, Jack turned and walked down to the main level of the Hub, “Cal, let me see the watch.” He said striding over.  
Cali looked up at him in confusion, “it’s just an old watch Jack, I’ve had it since forever, it doesn’t even open.” She said gently laying it in his hand.   
As soon as he saw the engraved case, he knew Martha was right; they had to call The Doctor. “Shit, Martha call him, call him now.” Jack said over his shoulder. He paced away from the couch and back again. Cali sat up swapping worried looks with Ianto.  
“Jack what is it?”  
“Where did you get this watch?” he said hunkering down in front of them.  
“I’ve had it for forever, mother said I found it in the back garden when I was little, it never has opened, it’s just always been kind of a … a comfort, why? Jack please tell me what’s going on,”  
“I can’t explain it Cal, but if this is what both I and Martha think it is, well then you’re not Human you’re what’s called a Time Lord, the same as –“  
“The Doctor.” Ianto said in a cold voice, “you won’t hand her over to him Jack, I won’t Let you.” He said tucking his arm around her waist and pulling her tight into his side.  
“I’m not planning on sending her anywhere, Yan, I promise you that.” he reached out and laid his hand over Ianto’s knee, “but if she is a Time Lord, it’s possible that she has suppressed memories. She needs to talk to him Yan.” The rest of the Team was suddenly very fascinated with Something in the medical Bay and even Martha moved to the other side of the Hub to give the trio some privacy.  
“what if he tries to take her?” the fear in Ianto’s voice was huge, and the worry in his eyes cut Jack deep.  
Cali turned to face Ianto, Taking his face in her hands she made him look at her, “I’m not going anywhere Ianto, not without you and Jack, and no one makes me do anything.” She pressed her lips against his before pulling back so Jack to could lay a reassuring kiss on Ianto’s lips. Jack moved up to sit on the other side of Cali and the three of them sat in a comforting silence. Martha walked back over, clearing her throat, “I explained everything, he’s on his way Jack, but then again saying that, you know how is driving is.” However, despite the thought that it might take The Doctor several months to get there, within seconds they heard the roaring moan of the Tardis moments before it appeared in the middle of the Hub Next to the water tower. Everyone but Jack and Martha were surprised by the blue box. When the door opened Jack’s emotions ranged from delighted to see his old friend, to hopeful that Cali was a Time Lord and he wouldn’t lose her as he had lost everyone else, to hoping she wasn’t a Time Lord, because then she would understand the Loneliness of Forever, to Concerned over Ianto.   
“Jack,” The Doctor sent him a reassuring smile before turning and opening his arms to give Martha a hug, “Martha! Jack, I’m guessing we should take this to your office?”  
“Whatever needs to be said can be said in front of our team.” Cali-Ann said standing next to Jack, Pulling Ianto off the couch with her.  
When the Doctor’s eyes caught sight of her he froze, “well shit.” He slumped again the Tardis pulling a hand over his face, “where did you come from?” he asked praying this wasn’t who he feared it might be.  
“The United States of America, Earth, 5100.” She said with Pride.  
“Is that the year you left or the year you were born?” he demanded.  
“The year I was born.”  
“May I see the watch?” he held his hand out, dread and hope heavy in his stomach. When she reluctantly handed the watch over he examined it closely muttering to himself running a finger along the line where it should have opened. “Were you adopted Cali-Ann?”   
“How did you know that?” she demanded, she hadn’t told anyone but Jack and Ianto that, it was a fact she hated.  
“As I thought, Jack, Tardis NOW!” the man turned and walked into the Tardis, not looking back and taking the watch with him.  
“What is it Doctor?” Jack closed the door, starting to get worried that this was more than he thought.  
“Martha was right about one thing, she is a Time Lord.” He leaned heavily against the council, sighing in defeat, he had tried so hard to keep her safe and out of harm, and yet here she was with Torchwood, and sleeping with Bloody Captain Jack Harkness, “But she is also my Daughter.”  
“What?” Jack couldn’t believe what he had just heard.  
“At the height of the Time War, my Fiancé and I had a child, we were already loosing, so we made her human, locking her powers into this watch, I took the child Far into the Future, hoping it would keep her safe. I placed her with a good American Family, knowing it would be less likely for me to run into her and make her life dangerous there than in London, where I prefer to frequent. After I watched to make sure that she was brought into the house I returned to my home, only to find I had been away for years, and the Time Lords were losing. In my absence my Fiancé was killed, that’s when I did what I did, and destroyed the Dalek and Time Lord race. I never went looking for her; I even stayed away from that time all together.” The Doctor turned to look at Jack, “What’s she like Jack?” he knew he had gotten at least one of his prayers from that night answered, she was as gorgeous as her mother.   
“Why don’t you stay a few days and get to know her?” Jack moved forward and placed a hand on his old friend’s arm, “she really is quiet amazing.”  
“I’ll give her the choice if she wants to open the pocket watch or not, but if she does, Jack you have to promise to take care of her for me.”  
“I will Doctor, I promise.”  
“do you love her?”  
Jack realized he was no longer talking to his friend, and was instead talking to her father, “I…” Jack paused, he never admitted to anyone but himself that he loved anyone, because he always knew that he would lose them, but if Cali accepted her powers, she wouldn’t grew old, he wouldn’t have to lose her, “I do, I really do love her.”  
“What about the other one?” that made the knot that had loosen in his stomach tighten again, he would still lose Ianto, and so would Cali.  
“Yeah, I love him too.”  
“Well that’s great but not what I was asking, does he love her?”  
“Yeah he loves her, he was terrified you would try to take her from us, but you won’t do that will you Doctor?”  
“No, I won’t do that; I couldn’t stand to have her in harm’s way because of me. I’m going to trust you Jack, you and your team to keep her safe.”  
“We will.”  
“Well, then let’s go tell her.”

Over the Next Hour the Doctor Wove a much more detailed story of the night he left his Daughter. Even as he and Ianto held her between them he was able to notice the similarities between her and the Doctor, not that it was that easy, the way he changed. But they had the same hair, even though the style and texture had changed from when Jack had first met the Doctor, the color always stayed a rich brownish black. The same color as Cali’s. At first Cal was in total shock, and then she moved to being pissed. They both let her go as she screamed at the Doctor for leaving her. Before things got even more emotional Jack and Ianto ushered them into Jack’s Office and shut the door, closing the blinds. Ianto made coffee for himself, Jack and Cali, and Tea for the Doctor. Jack and Ianto stood back letting the two talk things out.  
“So, do you want me to restore your powers?” the Doctor asked Laying the Pocket Watch in the middle of Jack’s desk.  
“I won’t ever die?”  
“it doesn’t make you immortal like Jack, but you won’t age, and there are very few things that can kill you, such as Daleks and cybermen, and many other things, but something simple, like a bullet wound, to anywhere other than you head, will just force you to regenerate, and when you regenerate you will look different, but you will still be you.”  
“Will I remember anything? From before?”  
“No, you were only a few days old.”  
“But there’s nothing you can do is there?” she asked and the Doctor knew she was asking if he could make Ianto the same way, so she wouldn’t have to lose him.  
“No there isn’t, I’m sorry.”  
“So in the end I will have to lose one, but either way I have to choose.” She turned to look at the two other men in the room and couldn’t think of choosing between the two, but she was going to have to. She could grow old with Ianto, but they would lose Jack once he could no longer watch them grow old, or she could live forever with Jack, but they would have to watch Ianto grow old and Die.  
“I’m sorry but yes,”  
“Can I change my mind later?”  
“Yes, but I will warn you, changing into a human is painful, the change back not as much.”  
“Then do it, Make me into one of you.” She had tears in her eyes, but deep down she knew she had made the right choice, and she knew it would become her mission to find a way to keep Ianto with her and Jack forever.  
“Wait.” Jack strode over to the desk and hunkered down next to the chair, “you don’t have to do this,” he said taking her hands in his, “I’m used to it, this existence, don’t do this for me, you two can have a life together, a normal life. You guys can get married, buy a house, start a family, grow old together. Don’t through that away for me.” He knew it would kill s small part of him if she listened to him, but he was telling the truth, to know that the two people he had loved the most in his life would be happy together would be worth the small death.  
“Jack, I’ve made my decision, and I wasn’t choosing one or the other, I’m choosing both, because there’s a way to make sure we can all be together, I’m not sure what, and I’m not sure how, but I do know that it will happen, if it’s the last thing I do.” She turned back to face her father, “Do it.”  
The Doctor pulled out the sonic Screw Driver and removed the seal he had put on the stop watch before sliding it back to her, “all you have to do is look into it.” He said. Carefully Cali took the watch in her hands and clicked the button to open it. The room filled with a golden light that quickly moved to fill only her eyes, before she slumped into Jack’s chair, the watch tumbling from her hand onto the floor. Ianto rushed to her side, and he and Jack cradled her between them. “She’s alright, just give her a few minutes.” The Doctor said picking the watch up and closing it. Cali-Ann’s eyes flickered and locked onto the Men holding her, slowly she sat up, pushing away from them.  
“that’s it?” she asked suspiciously, she didn’t really feel any different.  
“that’s it,” the Doctor said with a shrug, “you didn’t have any memories to hide, so you weren’t gaining anything but near immortality by opening it. I’ll leave you now, but know that if you have any questions or ever wish to return to being human all you have to do is call.” It startled everyone when the Doctor pressed his lips lightly to her forehead before walking out of the office and into his little blue box before it disappeared.


	14. Bridal Shower

Cali gave Ianto and Jack both a quick hug and kiss before following Tosh and Gwen out to where the limo was waiting for them. Cali was glad that they had the equipment to heal up Gwen’s arm from the attack earlier that night and her co-worker wouldn’t have to worry about that the next day for her wedding. Inside the Limo were four other girls who Gwen had been long time friends with. Their first stop was to one of the pubs that the team often frequented. Cali and Tosh had talked to the guys and since both bride and groom wanted to stop they decided Gwen would stop first and that the pub would be Owen’s last stop.  
After two rounds of shots a round mixed drinks they all piled back into the limo to go to the maid of honors house for an hour, though the reason as to why was never told. When they got there the maid of honor ushered them all into the living room, flitting to and from the kitchen to get everyone a drink. Cali, still unsure of what was going on, settled herself into a far corner of the couch, perched on the back where she could see the full room with ease. Graciously she accepted a cold beer from their host just as there was a knock at the door.  
“wonder who that could be?” the small woman asked, and Cali didn’t think she could muster anymore theatrics into one line. As she moved to open the door it finally clicked to Cali what was going on. How everyone was sitting in a semi-circle around the living room but how Gwen was almost by herself with no one directly on either side of her.  
“oh no.” Cali whispered as the maid of honor came back in with a very appealing cop trailing her with a stern look on his face.  
“I heard we had someone here who needs to be punished.” He said as he made his way to Gwen, Cali rolled his eyes, could he be anymore cheesy?  
Cali watched As the man grinded himself against Gwen as he pulled his clothes off. While she could admit that he wasn’t bad looking, she knew she would have rather gotten the experience from either Jack or Ianto or both. After Gwen had been reduced to a bright red giggling mess the man slowly made his way around the rest of the girls, moving onto the next once the girl in question was only slightly better than the bride to be.  
When he got to Cali he pulled her off the back of the couch so she was lying flat on the couch cushion under him, her legs on either side of his hips. She rolled her eyes and laughed as he rolled his hips, grinding against her, pulling a few whoops and hollers from the girls around them. When this didn’t pull a reaction from Cali slowly he slid down her body till he was kneeling in front of her. Swiftly he slid his arms under and around her waist lifting her off the couch so she was sitting on his shoulders. Suddenly he dropped her so she now had her legs wrapped around his waist. Hoping her would move onto the next girl soon Cali leaned forward and whispered into his ear. When she pulled back she smirked at the shocked expression on his face. He laid her back on the couch giving a few more rolls before moving onto the next, girl. After about an hour of making rounds , completely avoiding Cali, he left and a much more intoxicated group of girls climbed clumsily back into the limo.  
Next they went to every dance club in Cardiff, spending about an hour at each one. Cali decided early on in the night that she was going to only have a drink at each place allowing her to usher the other girls around. Several times she found herself out on the dance floors with Gwen and Tosh, fending off the overtly serious offers from numerous guys while flirting with ones she knew weren’t fully interested. By the time the final call was given Cali found herself helping the girls back into the limo. By the time she got in herself she had six sleeping girls in the back with her.  
“can you bring us back to where you picked me up at?” she asked the driver already reaching into her pocket with the hopes that she wasn’t the only one who had decided to stay sober that night.

Since Owen rarely hung out with anyone outside of work the bachelor party was rather small consisting of Andy, Jack, Ianto and Owen himself. They started off at the hottest club in Cardiff Where Ianto decided early on he would need to play the responsible one and keep an eye on the other three. At the third Stop Jack attempted to pull Ianto onto the floor with him however Ianto was quickly saved by the bartender coming over with refills for all distracting Jack as him and the others decided to try to find out who could out drink who.  
The final stop of the night was a small pub down the street from the Hub, as Ianto pulled the SUV to the curb the other three stumbled from the vehicle, Owen and Andy leaning on each other while Ianto casually slipped a supporting arm around Jack’s waist. They walked in a few minutes before final call so Ianto decided to purchase each of the others two drinks while ordering himself a pint to end the night. As the bar closed Ianto, with the help of the bartender, moved all three very intoxicated men to the SUV. He was just sliding Jack behind his seat when he felt his cell phone ring. Closing the door he pulled his phone out.  
“Hello?” god he hoped it wasn’t some Torchwood emergency, there weren’t enough of them Sober to handle one.  
“Yan, I hate to interrupt you but, I need your help.” Cali said when he answered.  
“What’s wrong?” he asked sliding into the driver seat and firing the engine.  
“I have six very drunk sleeping girls in the back of a limo in front of the tourist office.”  
“I’m on my way, however the others won’t be much help.” He said looking at his own snoring comrades.  
“we can’t fit everyone in the SUV.” Cali said wondering what in the world they were going to do.  
“well luckily Owen is staying at the Hub tonight so we can take him out of the SUV and slide Gwen and Tosh in here and we can put the other four into Gwen and Owen’s car, if you think you can safely drive.”  
“sounds like a plan.” And he could hear the smile in her voice.

While Cali waited for Ianto to show up she dug the keys from Gwen’s purse and pulled the car around. When Ianto pulled up the driver was helping her to load the last of the four girls into the car, all of their wallets and keys in the front seat. While they maneuvered the other sleeping passenger Ianto slid Owen into the hatch were they figured he would be safe till they could transport him to the Hub. Cali slid Tosh into her arms as Ianto did the same with Gwen, Cali slid Tosh in between Jack and Andy while Ianto slid Gwen into the front seat.  
“how is it we are always the ones that end up taking care of everyone else?” Cali asked with a smile as she watch Ianto lean over to buckle Gwen in. I wonder if he knows how good his arse looks in those pants? She thought to herself.  
“because that’s what we are good at.” He said standing back up and closing the door. “ready to move him into the office?” he asked nodding to Owens sleeping form.  
“one moment.” Cali walked over to the driver slipping him twenty pounds to stay and look after the two vehicles full of people till they came back up. Cali smirked as Ianto mercilessly tossed Owens lifeless body over his shoulder. Cali opened the door to the tourist office and then hit the buttons to open the path to the Hub. When the lift opened Cali strode ahead punching in her access key so the door could roll open and then quickly made her way to Jack’s office where she opened the hatch the bunker underneath. It took them about five minutes to lower Owen down there, and making sure he was laying on his side.   
When they got in the lift Cali turned planning on giving Ianto a quick Chaste kiss but as soon as her lips met his she found herself pressed against the wall of the lift, Ianto’s hands on her hips pulling her against him even as he pinned her to the wall. Cali ran her hands up over his shoulders, running her fingers into his hair, tightening her fists to pull him closer. They broke apart gasping as the bell chimed informing them that they had reached their floor. Quickly they made their way out side trying to avoid touching in case it lead to a more in-depth repeat of the lift.  
“so those four first?” he asked nodding toward the running car.  
“yeah.” Cali raised up to give him a quick kiss before dashing over to the car, her blood still pumping.

The nice thing was that they didn’t have to do any back tracking after leaving the Hub dropping off the four girls at each of their houses, Cali moving to open the doors as Ianto carried them in and laid them on their couches and then they locked the doors before heading to the next house. They dropped Gwen off next, leaving her the car and Cali slid in next to Ianto. The drive to Andy’s flat was filled with quick sideways glances both of them keeping strictly to their side of the car. While carrying Andy in was done in very much the same fashion as how they had moved Owen it didn’t take nearly as long to get him laid on his couch. As they left they decided it was much safer to take the stairs neither one of them speaking a word. Dropping Tosh off took even less time as they didn’t have to take a lift up or down and soon they were making the ten minute drive back to their own flat. As they pulled Jack out of the car, who Ianto decided to carry bridal style instead of over his shoulder, Cali glanced at Ianto.  
“should we lay him on the couch?” she wasn’t sure if she could not finish what they had started that night but then again felt that it would have been somehow wrong if they would have had Jack in the bed with them.  
“eerrrrr…” they looked at each other and finally Ianto gave an awkward shrug, “why not.”  
When they got into the flat Cali ran into the spare room and pulled the pillow and blanket off the bed before running back to help Ianto situate Jack onto the couch before the two of them quickly made their way to the bedroom, stopping every couple of feet to make sure the walls were still solid.


	15. Something Barrowed

Cali woke up to the alarm going off. Groaning she pressed the snooze button before turning to snuggle into Ianto’s chest.  
“We need to get up love.” He mumbled into her hair.  
“Too early.” She sighed, burying her head farther into his chest.  
“We need to get Jack up and get go check on the Hub, before heading to the wedding.” He chuckled as she shook her head no, “Come on Annwyl, it’s time to get up.”  
“But why?” she whined dropping her head back so green eyes met blue ones.  
“Because we have things to do, now why don’t you go get in the shower and I will go wake up the Captain.” He said with a smile.  
“okay.” She said rolling onto her back. Ianto gave her a quick kiss before rolling out of bed and making his way to the living room. Slowly she slid from between the sheets and made her way to the shower.  
Out in the living room Ianto smiled down at Jack's sleeping form. “Jack time to get up.” he said softly placing a hand on the Captains shoulder.  
“Mmmm,” Jack grumbled turning to bury his face into the couch.  
“Cariad, it’s morning.” Ianto said, a smile on his face.  
“I feel like someone ran over my head with a freight train.” He groaned into the pillow.  
“You’re hung over.” Ianto replied, greatly amused.  
“Who let me drink?” he asked rolling back over to look up at the smiling face looking down at him.  
“You and Owen decided you had to try to out drink each other.”  
“Oh...” Jack said, “Who won?” he asked trying to remember the previous night.  
“The Alcohol.” Ianto said moving to sit next to Jack as he sat up.  
“is it always this bright in here?” Jack asked, still trying to get his eyes to adjust to the light in the living room.  
“yes Jack.” Ianto said pressing a small kiss to the other man’s temple. Jack closed his eyes and leaned his head against Ianto's shoulder, hoping it would stop pounding soon. A few minutes later he felt the couch dip down on the other side of him and slowly opened his eyes. Cali was sitting there dressed in a pair of jeans and a button up shirt, his going by the cut and light blue color.  
“here take this it will help.” Cali said holding out a bottle of aspirin and glass of water. “Yan, why don’t you go hop in the shower I’ll work on getting Captain Grumpy Pants up.”  
“Sounds good, any chance I can talk you into breakfast?”  
“I’ll make egg sandwiches so we can eat on the way.” She said sending him a smile. “Come on Jack, you did this to yourself.”   
Soon they were all on their way to the Hub. Owen was just sitting up from the couch rubbing his head and reaching for his cell phone. ”Hello?” he answered, groggily. “Gwen! Good Morning Loves.” He sat up rubbing his face eyes locking on the group that just walked in, “Don’t worry Ianto was just saying he would give the florist a quick call.” He stood up eyes searching for the wallet Cali tossed in his direction. “Can’t its bad luck before the wedding … What’s happened.”

Within moments they were all on their way to Gwen and Owen’s flat. When they got there Owen lead the way into the bedroom and after a quick kiss started to examine the very pregnant looking Gwen. “Gwen you’re pregnant, almost full term.” He said looking up at her.  
“pregnant? That’s not possible.” She said. “Jack tell me what’s going on. Owen says I’m pregnant.”  
“What, you think?”  
“Jesus Christ, what with?”  
“Exo-biological insemination.” Owen answered, “  
“That Alien last night.” Cali said gently.  
“What … get off.” She pushed Owen back, “It bit me Cali, that’s all.” She said pushing past them and storming into the kitchen.  
“It passed the eggs on in the bite. Some species do that.” Jack said as Gwen poured herself a cup of water. “A kind of sneaky way of keeping the bloodline going.”  
“Boy would Darwin have had a field day if he had made it to space.” Cali said.  
“mmm yeah great.” Gwen said heading to the fridge.  
“Listen Gwen, You’re going to be fine okay, I promise.” Owen reassured his fiancé. “If there were any biological inconsistency’s than you would be dead already.” He finished as she pulled out a jar of pickles, “Now, according to this scan you’re carrying a non-sintenial blastopheric mass.”  
“A what?”  
“It’s a kind of alien egg. But don’t worry I’m going to look after you love, I promise.” He said walking over to her, “we have procedures in place for thissituation.”  
“You mean this has happened before?” she asked taking a bite of a pickle.  
“you’ve heard of immaculate conception haven’t you? Well …” Jack motioned to Gwen’s large stomach.  
“Right love, we take you back to the Hub you lie back, I run you through a bio-xenic microtron. A few days off your feet and you’ll be right as rain.”  
“Whao in a couple of days? We are getting married in five hours OWEN!” she nearly screamed.  
“No you’re not.” Jack said.  
“Gwen I hate to say this but we are going to have to postpone the wedding.”  
“No, No way. Do you have any idea how much a wedding costs Jack?”  
“Listen Gwen, you aren’t carrying the baby Jesus in there.” Cali said.  
“I Don’t care all right. I am not postponing the wedding.”  
“You are not thinking straight.” Jack said.  
“Don’t bring my bloody hormones into this Mr. Jack Harkness!” Gwen screamed waving a pickle in his face.  
“Okay, calm down.” Jack held both hands out in defense.  
“Owen has said if this wasn’t safe I would know about it by now. Right?”  
“As far as I know, yeah.”  
“Okay so I’m good until after the wedding. Then I will do whatever I have to do, once I’m Mrs. Harper not before.”  
“Forget the Money Gwen, Getting married today doesn’t matter.” Owen said.  
“It matter’s to me! It’s not the money Owen. I want to marry you today. Whatever happens. If the skies are suddenly full of spaceships or an army of Weevils climb out of the drains of St Mary’s Street … You Fool. Do you not understand what I’m saying Owen Harper? All I wanna do today is marry you. That’s all I wanna do. Please.” She fell into his arms crying.  
“Why don’t you two head back to the Hub I’ll see you at the wedding.” Owen said.  
Cali and jack nodded heading back to meet Ianto and to get Gwen a new wedding dress. About twenty minutes later Owen walked in, “she’s going through with the wedding I couldn’t change her mind, but I need you guys to bring a few supplies.”

They all made it to the hotel by ten to help Owen and Gwen. Jack had warned them that the Baby’s mother could make an appearance and all were on alert. Cali had the Singularity Scalpel tucked into her purse at Owen’s request and Jack’s hesitance. “I’m worried about her.” Cali whispered to Ianto as they waited for Gwen. The wedding already being ten minutes off schedule. “She’s late.”  
“she’ll be okay.” As Ianto finished talking the music started and they stood to watch Gwen’s father walk her down the isle.  
“Friends and Relatives of Owen and Gwen, we are here today to celebrate the marriage of two people.” The priest started, “a ceremony binding in law. Owen and Gwen Have chosen to solemnize their commitment before you, but first the law requires me to ask of you all if there’s anyone who knows of any reason why these two may not marry.” Suddenly Gwen gave a scream and clutched her stomach.  
“Crap, that baby wants out.” Cali said to Ianto.  
“Lets hope it will hold out till after the ceremony.”  
“I don’t think that’s going to happen.” Cali watched has Owen shook his head at Gwen, eyes filled with apologies.  
“I’m sorry father but we are going to have to post-pone this ceremony.” Owen said, before dragging Gwen back down the isle.  
“I do think that was our action call.” Ianto said pulling Cali out of her seat. Quickly they followed after the other two, leaving Jack and Tosh to placate the wedding gests. 

“Owen I told you that we were getting married today even with this thing!” Gwen said motioning to her bulging stomach.   
“Gwen, darling, I understand your concerns, but this isn’t just about us, if Mommy Nostravite comes for that baby she will kill everyone around us.” Owen said, resting his hands on her shoulders, “ We have a plan.”  
“and what that?” she asked as Cali and Ianto entered the room.  
“This.” Cali answered pulling out the Singularity scalpel.   
“The Singularity Scalpel? That is your idea on our wedding day Owen? If you didn’t want to marry me you could have just said so!” Gwen nearly shrieked.  
“Gwen, its cool Believe me ok?” Owen said. “I’ve done a lot of work on this since the whole Mayfly Business.”  
There was a knock on the door, “hey guys, let me talk to her,” Jack said walking in. “I’ll see if I can get her to see reason.” With a few nods they all moved out of the room.  
“hello Jack.” Gwen said looking at him in the mirror she was standing in front of. “Not quite the blushing bride am I? But I’d given up things going as planned a long time ago”  
“If life always turned out the way we expected, what would be the point of living?” Jack asked, standing directly behind her, hands on her shoulders.  
“I didn’t expect to meet someone like you.” She said placing her hands on his, “if I hadn’t, I would be married by now, to Rhys”  
“You’re not the only one who met somebody who knocked their world out of kilter.” He whispered.  
“Owen has been there for me since the beginning, Through all this madness.”

Out in the hall way Owen paced, the singularity scalpel in hand, “if she would just let me get that thing out of her then we could continue on with this wedding just like she wants, I don’t understand why she is being so stubborn.”   
“Why the hell are you three out in the hall?” Jack asked running up the stairs.  
“if you’re out here …” Cali said, they all looked at each other before rushing into the room. Gwen had just hit a Nastrovite Jack over the head with a candlestick. “Get her out of here.” Cali threw Gwen at Ianto and Owen before pulling her gun and firing into the Nastrovite.   
“remind me not to piss you off.” Jack said from next to her.   
“Don’t worry you always come back.” She grit out, emptying her gun before the damned thing fell back on the bed. “think this thing will?”  
“let hope not, come on we need to go check on Gwen.” Suddenly the Nostravite jumped up and pushed both of them out of the way before running out.   
“That’s two guns emptyied into that thing and its not stopping, must be some mother instinct thing.”  
“I guess we are going to need a bigger gun then.”

Gwen and Owen ran into the barn, Gwens stomach twisting in pain. “Alright Owen get this thing out of me.” Gwen screamed as he blocked the door behind them.  
“Are you sure?”  
“Just do it. Just do it.” She urged as they heard a bang on the door followed by an alien scream. Owen line up the shot, causing a lantern to explode not far away. “OWEN!”  
“alright, alright, I got it this time. I’ve got it now.”  
“I love you, I really love you.”  
“I love you, you’ll be ok.”  
“hurry.” Gwen watched as he fine tuned the device, “I love you.”   
Owen finally locked on and hit the device, Gwen arched up gasping, “Gwen! Gwen!” Owen grabbed her, urging her to be ok. Suddenly she came back to herself and immediately pressed her lips to his, her stomach flat again. Suddenly the Jack look alike busted into the barn.  
“Get away from her!” As the words left its mouth it exploded into a rain of greenish grey alien goo. Behind it stood the real Jack holding a big gun Cali and Ianto on each side.  
“Hows that for shape shifting?”

Jack watched as Cali and Ianto danced together later that night at the reception, and smiled. A little ways off, Andy had pulled Tosh onto the dance floor and the two of them were both in fits of laughter. Looking over he couldn’t help the urge to cut into the dance with Gwen and Owen, wanting to know one time what it would feel like to twirl with her across the dance floor, he knew it was the closets he and she would ever come to any type of relationship. Getting up he made his way over to them and set his hand on Owen’s shoulder.  
“mind if I cut in?”  
“Why not.” Owen said transferring gwen’s hand into Jacks.   
For a few beets they just swayed together as Jack was at a loss for words, “Enjoy the Honeymoon.”  
“I will.” She said looking up into his oh so blue eyes. “What will you do while we’re gone?”  
“oh the usual, Pizza, Ianto and Cali, Save the world a couple times.”  
“Will you miss me?”  
“always. Owen is a lucky man, and a perfect husband. He really loves you.”  
“I know.” Suddenly Ianto was standing next to the two of them.  
“May I?”  
“Yes.” Gwen said, stepping back from Jack. Jack placed his hands in the same places on Ianto has he had had them on Gwen. He watched as she moved back over to Owen and leaned his face against Iantos. Only then did he release that Ianto and Cali both held a different appeal then Gwen ever did, as Ianto’s scent filled his nose he released they both held the promise off home and acceptance, where Gwen held only a wish of what he could never have, normalcy.   
Back at the Table Cali dropped into a seat next to Tosh, she had sent Ianto over to dance with Jack as she could tell he wanted to and she figured it would look less like a jealouse spouse if he did it rather than her.  
“you ok?” Tosh asked sensing the unease in her friend.  
“I just have to wonder, Ianto wasn’t enough for him, its why he was ok with me joining, but will mea nd Ianto be enough for him or s he always going to be chasing after more?” she voiced her concerns outloud for the first time.  
“give him time, hes had shine for Gwen since he first laid eyes on her on a roof top two years ago.” Tosh said gently squeezing her shoulder.

A few hours later the hole torchwood team sat together at a table, the other guests passed out from the effects of the retcon.  
“You would never guess a few hours ago they were all in danger of being torn apart by some evil psycho bitch.” Owen said looking around.  
“It was a bit too much for my mum and dad.”  
“Time for bed I think, we will see you all after the Honeymoon.” Owen said pushing back from the table. “Stay out of trouble.” Slowly every one stood to say their good byes.  
“Thanks for the dress it was beautiful.” Gwen said to Ianto as she hugged him and kissed him on the cheek.   
“You take care.” He responded.  
“Something tells me our bedtime is a long way off.” Tosh said looking around the hall.  
“that’s right guys, its been a busy day but we are not finished yet.” Jack said. “We’ve got a lot to do. We’ve got a major mop up operation. And I want your best work, remember its Gwen and Owens wedding.”  
“That’s what I love about Torchwood.” Ianto said, “By say you’re chasing the sum of the universe. Come midnight you’re the wedding Fairy.”  
“And what a cute one you are.” Cali said with a laugh.


	16. Coat Swap

Cali waited till Jack was in the shower to grab her victim and slide from the Flat unnoticed. She flew down the steps and slid into the car that was waiting for her.

Jack glanced down at his watch as he pulled his suspenders over his shoulders. “Crap.” He muttered seeing that it was already almost 9 o’clock, and that there was no way they would make it to the Hub before everyone else. “Ianto, Cali ready to go?” he asked as he walked out to the living room.  
“Um Jack…. Cali isn’t here… and neither is your coat.” Ianto said from by the door.  
“What?” Jack stopped. Surly he was joking.  
“Cali and your coat are missing.”  
Jack pulled his phone out and immediately dial Cali phone.  
“Hello?” She answered on the first ring.  
“Where are you?” Jack growled out.  
“Shopping.”  
“And where is my coat?”  
“Your coats missing?” Cali filled her voice with as much innocence as she could muster.  
“Yes and for some reason I think you know where it is.”  
“Well why don’t you go looking for it?” she said with a small laugh before hanging up. Quickly she used her cuff to disable the UPS tracker on both the Cuffs and the phone.  
“So am I going to mysteriously disappear for helping you with this?” the driver of the car asked.  
“Nope, he’ll get over it.” Cali said with a grin.

“She stole the coat.” Jack said looking at his phone in disbelief.  
“Did she say why?”  
“No she told me to look for it.”  
“ok, well think, she left the SUV here, so she didn’t drive herself, so she either had to call someone for a ride or is walking… why don’t we call Tosh and Gwen and Owen and see if she’s with them.” Ianto said. He knew that Cali wouldn’t do anything to hurt the Great Coat but it was still weird to see Jack without it.  
“Right you call Owen and I’ll call Tosh.” Sadly neither of them had heard from Cali. Jack and Ianto decide to head to the Hub in hopes that they would find some sort of evidence there.

On the bridge to London Cali sat with her partner in this crime.  
“So why are we stealing Jack’s coat again?” The driver asked as the morning traffic crept forward.  
“Because I want to get an extra couple for him …. Do you know how many times poor Ianto has had to try to repair this thing?”  
“So why didn’t you just ask him?”  
“Because this is more fun.” She said sending a bright smile to the person next to her.   
“Why do I have a feeling this is going to be bad?”  
“Now why would you think that?”

When they got to the Hub Jack found a note sitting on his desk.  
“I wasn’t at home, and I’m not here either. I have many stops to make, crossing water and pavement to reach my destinations.”  
“Ianto, what the hell does this mean?” Jack said shoving the note at him.  
Ianto read the note over before smiling, “It looks like our darling Cali-Ann has left you clues to try to help you find your coat.”  
“Ok so what does that tell us?”  
“That she is in a car and on her way to London, sir.”  
“She took my coat to LONDON!”  
“That’s what I would guess by this note,” Ianto looked at the calculating look in Jack’s eyes and couldn’t help but smile. Life with these two was never dull. “Should I go get the SUV, Sir?”  
“Yeah go get the SUV ready, I want my coat.” Jack growled, before stalking out to the rest of the HUB “TOSH! GWEN! OWEN!” all three faces turned to face him. “Me and Ianto are going on a little treasure hunt to get my coat back, can the three of you hold the fort down.” He waited till he got three nods “good call if the world is ending, Ianto lets go.” He said moving to the lift. Ianto’s Foot had barley left the floor before Jack was raising the lift.

The first stop Cali made was to an old Museum restoration shop, she wanted Jack’s coat, and the two backups she was going to have made, be exactly as they would have been when he first received this one. She waited as they lady behind the counter carefully shined and polished every piece of brass and then went to work to clean and restore the wool. It took a full two hours, and at the end she purchased enough replacement hardware to have four coats made. Before leaving she handed the lady a note asked her to give it to the two men who would come in. as she slid back into the car she sent Jack a text.

They had just gotten off the bridge when Jacks phone buzzed to life.  
“I’m back to my original self, and have continued on my way.” He read the text out loud. “Again what the hell does that mean?”  
“She took it to a restoration shop.” Ianto said, pulling out his PDA, thankfully the traffic was still slow enough he was able to perform a quick search for restoration shops that would specialize in world war two memorabilia, specifically uniforms. “We’re in luck, I’m ninety percent sure I knew where she took your coat, maybe they will be able to help us there.”

Next Cali gave her accomplice directions to the Taylors who she had called the previous, week. She had told them that she would need the coats by today and would be bringing the last few pieces they would need to finish the coats with her.  
“Why don’t you go pick us up lunch?” she said sending a smile to the driver.  
“Right, I’ll get right on that.” they grumbled before pulling away.  
Cali quickly disappeared into the shop with her bag full of hard ware. As she predicted it took just about an hour for them to finish the two coats and she was sure the boys were only at most thirty minutes behind her. She gave the lady at the counter another note to give to the boys before getting in the car.

When Jack and Ianto walked into the shop an elderly lady was behind the counter smiling at them.  
“She said when you came in to give you this note, a very lovely woman.”  
“Do you know where she went to?” Ianto asked giving the elderly lady a smile.  
“Oh no clue, though I will say I hope she appreciates that coat better than whoever she got it from. I’ve seen coats straight off the battle field in better shape than that poor thing.”  
“Well thank you.” Ianto turned and followed Jack out, “so what does this one say.”  
“She gave an address this time, nothing but an address.”  
“Well at least it will be easier to find.” Ianto said before getting back in the car. 

Cali quickly scarfed down her lunch as they headed back toward Wales, all three coats were in a protective plastic, and all three looked at if they had been taken straight off the line. The only way that she knew which one was Jacks original coat was that his unique scent still clung to it.

When Jack and Ianto walked into the tailors shop a young girl sad behind the counter, “you hear for the note” she asked popping her gum.  
“Yeah.” Ianto walked up, dear god I hope they didn’t let this one touch Jack’s coat. He thought had he opened the note. “Well Jack it looks like it’s time to head back to the Hub.” Ianto said handing Jack the note.  
“We three are on our way home?” Jack looked up, “so what was the point of sending us here?”  
“Ma’am may I ask what the lady who gave you this note was hear for?”  
“Yeah she was picking up some big order, no clue what it was though,” she said with a shrug before starting to flick through a magazine, giving them both an obvious dismissal.  
“Well looks like we go back and find out what she has been up to,” Ianto said.  
“I just want my coat.” Pouted Jack.

Cali walked through the cog door with all three coats. “Jack and Ianto should be here soon.” Cali said as she headed to Jacks office. She hung all three on the coat hook in his office wanting to know if he would be able to tell them apart. She flopped down into his chair minutes before they entered through the cog door.  
“MY COA-“Jack stopped in his tracks, “coats?” he said turning to look at her.  
“oh one of them is your, the other two are for when Ianto can no longer salvage the damage you do to this one.” Cali said with a smirk.  
“Which one is MINE, though” Jack said starting to circle the three coats.  
“You can’t tell?” she asked delighted that it had worked out.  
“no.” she could hear the pout in Jacks voice as Ianto came through the door.  
“Can you tell the difference Ianto?” she watched as he to inspect the Jackets, only he ran his hands down the back of each feeling tis fabrics and as she watched she could see him take a deep breathe over each, taking in its scent.  
“This one” he said holding it out to Jack.  
“How did you do that?”  
“It still smells like you,” Cali said. Jack had no more than slid the jacket over his shoulders than the rift alarm was blaring to life, “well so much for a slow day.” She said jumping to her feet and following the others out, this is what she loved.


	17. Adrift

Cali was at her station when Gwen walked in. “Tosh can you look at something for me?”  
“Sure what is it?”  
“I need to know if the rift was active on a day 11 months and seven days ago, on the barrage.”  
“Sure one moment.” After a few key strokes she motioned Gwen over, “No recognizable rift activity around the barrage on that date.”  
“What about if you tried …”  
“I ran checks for three months on either side then extended the radius by a mile and checked again. Still Nothing.”  
“Okay, thanks.” She said with a sigh before heading up to Jacks office. A few moments later Jack imerged from his office, Jacket in hand.  
“You two ready?” he called to Cali and Ianto.  
“why don’t you boys go ahead I have a few things to finish up here.” Cali said giving them both a smile.  
“Are you sure?” Ianto asked as he moved to stand by Jack, “I’m sure we can wait until your done with what ever it is.”  
“You two go, I’ll be fine and will meet you at the flat in a few hours.” She said moving to kiss them both good bye.  
“you heard the Lieutenant Ianto, lets scram.” Jack said making his way over to the invisible lift. Cali watched as the two boys moved skyward before disappearing. A few moments passed before Gwen left also.  
“So what do you think that was about?” Cali asked Tosh.  
“who knows with her, sometimes I actually feel bad for Owen.”  
“hey he chose his poison.” Cali said going back to her reports, it took her a few an hour to finish everything but soon she was on her way home.

The next morning Cali woke up to her phone ringing. “Hello?” She mumbled snuggling back against Jack.   
“Cali, I need you to come down to the hub, I think I might have found something that night Gwen was looking into but I want another set of eyes before calling her.”  
“Tosh we really need to get you a bed mate so you stop going to work so early.” She groaned rolling out of the warmth, “I’ll be there in a few.”  
“Where are you going?” Jack asked, peaking open his eyes.  
“Tosh has something she wants me to look at.” Cali said pulling a tank top over her head, “I’ll see you guys at the hub.”  
“you keep this up we’ll think you love those aliens more than us.” Ianto mumbled against Jacks neck.  
“Never.” She said moving to kiss them both even as she wiggled her hips into her jeans. She made the brisk walk to the Hub huddling into her jacket to protect hands encased in the leather gloves Ianto had gotten her. She stepped onto the lift and pressed her wrist cuff to lower it. “Alright show me what you got.” She said strolling over to Tosh. She let her eyes wander over the findings and had a bad feeling she knew what it was that Gwen had stumbled upon. “I don’t know Tosh, it’s a rather small blip, but if Gwen can find something from it then lets give it to her.” Before moving over to her own desk to wait for Jacks arrival.  
“right I’ll give her a call.” Tosh said pulling out her cell phone, “Gwen, come into the hub, I’ve dug up some new data on that night at the barrage. I think you might want to take a look at it.”

About five minutes later Jack and Ianto strolled into the Hub, “Jack your office now.” Cali said striding up in front of him. She waited till he made it through the door before closing it.  
Immediately he pulled her hips against his, “you know had you stayed in bed a little longer we wouldn’t have to do this now.”  
“Not why I called you up here Jack.”  
“Then why?” worry furrowed his brow.  
“Gwen’s stumbled upon the island hasn’t she?”   
“she found out about an incident, but i brushed it off like it was nothing and she didn’t push it.”  
“that was before Tosh found the blip.”  
“oh for the love of … what did she say.”  
“its why she wanted me to come in this morning. I told her it didn’t look like anything but if she wanted to get Gwens hopes up to go for it. Jack we should just tell them, all of them.”  
“We cant and you know that, especially not Gwen. Owen and Tosh might be able to handle it but Gwen has too big of a heart, she would want to help everyone, rehabilitate them and you know it wont work.” He said pacing behind his desk.  
“damn it Jack, shes not going to let this go now.”  
“sure she will once I tell her to.”  
“some times love your self importance astounds me.” she said before walking out. She made it to the base of the stairs when Ianto was at her side.  
“Everything ok?” he asked worry in his eyes.  
“It will be ok, just a difference of opinion, how long has Gwen been here?” she asked.  
“walked in just after you closed Jacks door.”  
“she knows Ianto, she doesn’t know everything but she’s onto it.”  
“is that what you and Jack were Talking about?”  
“yeah.”  
“Everything will work out annwyl.” He said with a smile.  
“annwyl, what does it mean?”  
“Beloved, in welsh.”  
“I love it.” She said laying a light kiss on his cheek. Suddenly Gwen was moving back across the hub and out. “well despite what Jack said I have a feeling she isn’t going to let this go.” Cali said shaking her head.   
Over the next several days Tosh seemed distant from Cali, and it was obvious that both her and Gwen were working on something even Owen didn’t really know about. Cali tried not to let it bother her, she wasn’t normally the jealous type, especially over friends but it did bother her. It bothered her that her only friend seemed to be avoiding her, even to the point of cancelling on their Wednesday night wine and movies. She wanted to tell Tosh what was going on, to tell her that it was in everyone’s best interest that she stop helping Gwen, but every time she brought it up Jack would shut her down. One morning when they got in Gwen and Tosh immediately pulled everyone into the board room. Cali couldn’t help the scowl that filled her face.  
As soon as every one sat down she started as Tosh handed each of them copies of their findings, “Cardiff has an epidemic of missing persons, totally out of kilter with any other comparable city. And its all down to the rift.”  
“Are you sure they aren’t just normal missing persons?” Ianto asked, “People do go missing for other reasons.”   
“No Toshiko crossed-referenced the locations with the rift spikes. The people we’ve identified here are definitely the victims of the rift.”  
“What so we think happens to them?” Owen asked, obviously his fiancé hadn’t included him in her ideas.  
“Scattered through time and space, I guess.” Cali said, as ever playing Jacls side no matter how she disagreed with it.   
“Cheery thought. Thank you.” Owen responded.  
“This is good work.” Jack said, it was time to try to placate the two girls, “But I don’t know what youwant us to do.”  
“We find a way to prevent it.” Gwen said.  
“Toshiko, can we predict when the spikes are going to happen?” Jack asked, knowing perfectly well the answer.  
“No.” she said slightly defeated, “And they gone in a matter of seconds.”  
“Then I don’t know how we combat them.” Jack said.  
“Jack, we have a duty here.” Gwen pushed “These people are victims of the rift. If they’d been attacked by a Weevil …”  
“Weevils we can catch” Jack interrupted, “If they’re victims, we fix their wounds. But this, we don’t know when its going to happen. We don’t know where they end up. Seriously, Gwen, practically, tell me what we should do.”  
“we help those left behind.” She said, everyone could tell Jacks rejection of the idea when he lowered his head. “why not?”  
Jack sighed, “Its nothing to do with us, Move on.”  
“Jack you should see these people.” Gwen pleaded   
“Some things we cant fix.”  
“So we don’t even try?” by now it had come down to a battle of wills between Jack and Gwen and Cali wished she could be any where else.  
“Look, love,” Owen said trying to calm his wife, “Jacks right. They need counselling, support. That is not us. We don’t have anyone qualified for that here.”  
“Ah, okay is that what you all think?” and immediately Cali felt bad for Owen, knowing he would be on the couch that night. “We are the only ones who know the truth. We can help them. It doesn’t have to be this hard. Its not a badge of honour, Jack.”  
Jack stood up, hands on the table, “Close this down.” He ordered her, pointing a finger at her to drive his point home before turning to walk out.  
“Jack!” Gwen called after him and Ianto and Cali quickly moved out of the room behind him.   
“I’ll talk to him.” Ianto said to Gwen, and Cali knew he was talking to her too.  
“So is that it then? We just sweep it under the carpet?”  
“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.” Owen recited hoping to calm his wife.  
“Oh bollocks to serenity!” Gwen yelled at him.  
“For a lovely wife, you’ve got a very dirty mouth love.”  
“yes.”  
“I love you Gwen but I’m with Jack.” Owen said standing up, “Why are you pushing this so hard?”  
“because I don’t want our child to be born into this world!” Gwen yelled at him. The three people left stood in shock and silence.  
“I’m sorry but we did our best.” Tosh said.  
“Thanks Tosh.” Gwen said defeatedly. 

Jack sent everyone home early that day, the tension so think it was choking.   
“I’m sorry this has put a strain on you and Tosh.” Jack said coming up behind Cali at her station.  
“I know you are Jack, and I do understand your point, but this “because I said so” attitude wont go over well with them forever.” She said leaning back against him.  
“I’m working on it.” He said moving to kiss her neck.  
“oh I know you are.” She said, reaching back and letting her fingers dance over the clips of his suspenders. As soon as she felt the back one give she darted away dangling it, “Ianto time to play hide and seek!” she shouted as she dashed away, hoping to get things back too normal in their trio at least.   
An hour later found them all in the green house, hands all over each other. It wasn’t the first time they had had sex in inappropriate places in the hub. They were so wrapped up in each other that they miss the sound of the hub door rolling ope, Gwen calling out for Jack, and the door to the hot house opening until her shocked voice filled the room.   
“Jack, I … Oh, God.” Quickly she looked away, a nervouse laughter bubbling from her lips, “ah sorry. I’m sorry.” She said backing out the door. Quickly Ianto gathered his clothes and went after her as Cali and Jack slowly pulled theirs on. Gwen turned when she heard the door open behind her. “Ianto, hi. I’m sorry. I didn’t realise.”  
“It doesn’t matter.” He said awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck.  
“And I wouldn’t have come in if I’s known …”  
“Always room for one more.” Jack said earning a slap from Cali as they joined the other two on the catwalk. “We could have used you an hour ago for naked hide-and-seek.”  
“He cheats. He always cheats.” Ianto said with a smirk.  
“Was there something you wanted?” Cali asked hoping to diffuse the awkwardness.  
“Jonah Bevan. The missing boy.” She started. Barley suppressing a groan Cali walked back into the hot house not wanting to hear the fallout from this. “I’ll make it my own special project. My responsibility. Nothing to do with anyone else. I’m not letting it go.”  
“No.” Jack said firmly.  
“What?” everyone could tell Gwen wasn’t used to Jack telling her no.  
“I don’t know how I can be any clearer.” Jack said getting irritated.  
“Oh.” Gwen said eyes going wide, “well, Tosh has her projects, so do Ianto and Cali. Why can’t I?” Ianto was starting to wish he had immediately gone back in the hot house with Cali.  
“Leave it alone.” Jack ordered.  
“I can’t” Gwen argued, eye challenging Jack.  
Jack took a deep breath, closing his eyes, before looking up at Ianto, “Coming back in? Work to do.” He said turning and walking into the hot house.  
“Yup.” Ianto replied wishing the last several minutes hadn’t happened.  
“Jack, we’re not finished.” Gwen called, still rearing for a fight.  
“Yes, we are.” He said before the door swung closed behind him.  
“Uh…There’s a package on your desk.” Ianto said before joining the other two back inside the hot house.

About twenty minutes later Cali was lounging across the couch completely worn out, Ianto madding them each a drink when his phone rang.  
“Hello?” He answered, “I don’t know what you mean?”  
“Ianto?” Jack called still up in the hot house, the man never seemed to tire.  
“Night, Gwen.” Ianto said hanging up.  
“Ianto!” Jack called, it was going to be along night thanks to Gwen, he was even more hyper than before.   
Cali rolled her eyes, “Guess its your turn, I’m going to take a nap.” She said.  
“bloody hell you are.” Ianto growled throwing her over his shoulder.

The next morning Cali eyed Ianto from where she was lounging on the couch at the flat, “what did you do yesterday?”  
“Hmm?” he replied distractedly from the kitchen.   
“you did something yesterday, when Gwen showed up at the Hub, that’s why she called you, that’s why you were in such a rush for Jack to get out to Holm Island this morning.”  
“I might have slipped her a pre-programmed GPS.” He answered.  
“Jacks going to be furious.”  
“and he’ll get over it, both you and Gwen were right, more people with-in Torchwood need to know about what the rift does. If I learned anything when Jack ran away with Doctor is that he wont always be here and because of that he has no right keeping these kinds of secrets.” Cali could hear the irritation in his voice as she moved towards him.  
“oh how Owen would be surprised by the fact that you aren’t the lap dog you pretend to be.” She said laughing even as she slid her arms around his waist. “Thank you, thank you so, so much Ianto.”  
“you’re welcome Annwyl.” He said pulling her around and kissing her lightly. “So how are we going to deal with Jack when he gets home?”  
“oh I figure he’ll yell and scream for a big and then get over it.” Ianto said with a smile.  
“well why don’t we order food and have it ready from when he gets here.” Cali suggested.  
“Perfect idea, I’ll call-“ before he could finish his sentence Jack walked through the door.  
“Good job Ianto, now Gwen will be telling Jonah’s mother and taking her to the island to see him.” Jack paced the living room. “this is exactly why I didn’t want them to know.”  
“Jack whether you agree or not they had a right to know!” Cali argued.  
“another ten years and they won’t even be here so what does it matter?” he growled.  
“It matters because they put their life on the line everyday under your command and so you owe them a little honesty whether you like it or not!” Cali shouted. “if you are going to give yourself the title of captain maybe you should learn to live up to it!” she could feel herself shaking in rage.  
“all right lets all calm down.” Ianto said stepping between them, he never meant for this to affect the three of them like this.  
“no she’s right.” Jack sighed rubbing his eyes, “and so were you for giving Gwen that GPS. I’m so used to the old Torchwood I don’t even know how to work in the Torchwood I’ve made.” He collapsed down onto the couch.  
“then let us help you.” Cali said kneeling in front of him.  
“you’ll forgive me when I do something wrong?”  
“Always Cariad.” Ianto said sitting next to him.  
“By the way, Tosh called me, Gwen is pregnant.” Cali informed them all.  
“well that does explain a lot.” Ianto laughed, sending them all into laughter.


	18. Tinsel Hub

Cali smiled at Tosh as they entered the Hub. It was December 22nd, after tomorrow the whole team had Off, with Jack Ianto and herself planning to sync the alerts to their mobiles. She had told the boys she was crashing at Tosh’s saying that they needed a girls day. In truth her and Tosh were planning on being at the Hub all night. It took several trips to and from the borrowed SUV to get everything down and now they got to work. First they moved the small decrepit tree that sat in the Hub up to the Tourist office, from there they decided to string lights along the edge of the ceiling and the windows, hanging a wreath on the door. Giggling the two girls headed back down to the Hub.  
Cali moved to the kitchen to pour each of them a glass of wine before they started the serious decorating. The first thing they did was to pull out the fake snow they had gotten and line the corridors leading down to the Hub, leaning lighted Candy canes along the walls. Inside they replaced the old tree with the larger of the two new ones they had bought, and spent the next hour placing the many specialized ornaments on it. Amongst the ornaments were replicas of each of the team members, and one that looked like Janet. Instead of a star or angel the girls had decided it would be fitting to top the tree with a pterodactyl. Next Tosh went to work, wrapping garland around the railings that ran throughout the Hub while Cali went to work in Jack’s office. First she assembled the smaller tree they had gotten and decorated it in reds, blue, and greens, topping it with the red barrette Martha had sent. Next she lined the edge of the windows with fake spray snow and then lights and then turned to his computer. She pulled out the computer clings her and Tosh had found and lined the edge of his screen with sparkling icicles.  
After they each finished their perspective tasks they decided to eat the small Chinese dinner they had gotten for themselves, along with another glass or four of wine. Next they started in the board room repeating what Cali had done in Jacks office on the windows here before putting bows on the back of all the chairs and a small Christmas tree candle holder in the center. Next they set about hanging mistletoe in all of the doorways. It took them longer than normal to do this since they were both starting to get tipsy from the wine they had been drinking, causing this event to be filled with giggling.  
After they had hung the last of the mistletoe they started to decorate their collogues desks, covering them in tinsel and placing stickers around the screens like Jack’s. The final part of their plan had them moving down to the vaults where the proceeded to apply fake snow to the outside corners of the cells before applying lights. They plugged the last light in somewhere around three am and made their way back up to the couch where they talked for another hour with another few glasses of wine before falling asleep against each other.

The next morning both Jack and Ianto hurried through their normal morning routine both agreeing that the large bed had felt empty without Cali there. As the two of them walked up to the Hub they paused at the sight of the wreath on the door.  
“was that there last night?” Jack asked, his hand coming to rest on his webbly.  
“No, and Jack I don’t think someone who means us harm is going to hang a wreath as a warning.” Ianto said unlocking the door and stepping in, “or lights…” Ianto’s frown deepening when he saw the tree from down in the hub next to the small desk he kept. “Um Jack, did you move that last night?”  
“nope.”  
“what the hell is going on?”  
“no clue, why don’t you let me enter the Hub first.” Jack said shouldering in front of him. When the door to the Hub opened again they paused in confusion.  
“Jack?”  
“Still no clue Ianto.” This time Jack pulled his gun from the holster as they followed the candy Cane trail to the stairs, figuring it was safer than the elevator. Slowly they made their way to the Hub. When they entered the hub they both looked around in amazement. The hub had been transformed overnight into a winter wonderland. Suddenly it all made sense when their eyes landed on the two girls sprawled across the couch with the bottle and glasses of wine and empty cartons of Chinese on the table.  
“so she ditched us to decorate the Hub?” Jack asked.  
“Shut up Jack.” Just as Ianto finished talking the Cog door rolled open to reveal an equally amazed Gwen and Owen. Both Tosh and Cali slowly emerged from sleep at the alarm going off for the second time. When Cali noticed the rest of the team standing there she sat up with a smile.  
“Merry Early Christmas.” She said. Running over to through her arms around the boys, she had missed them in the one night they had been apart.  
“you guys did all of this?” Jack asked still amazed at how the Hub looked.  
“yeah, we thought it would brighten things up a bit.  
“and we have a small dinner prepared for later.” Tosh said, starting to perk up. Ianto had already moved over to clean off the mess from the coffee table. Jack shook his head with a smile before heading up to his office. Cali moved to sit at her station, trying not to grin, knowing what Jack would find in his office.  
“IANTO!” Jack called a moment later in a voice that could only be described as that of a child who had gotten exactly what they wanted for Christmas.  
Ianto’s head popped up before he turned to look at Cali, “what did you do?”  
“me?” she asked her eyes wide in mock innocence. “Nothing.” With a sigh Ianto steeled himself for what he was about to find. Cali slid from her station to follow him up. As soon as he was within arm’s reach Jack’s hand shot out to slide the Unit Cap onto Ianto’s head.  
“oh god.” Ianto groaned as Cali was sent into a fit of giggles, which of course had the entire team coming over to investigate.  
“Oh Ianto it’s adorable.” Gwen squealed while Ianto rolled his eye and headed back to his domain.  
Slowly Cali was able to breath enough to speak, “Ok Jack, now go put it back on the tree, at least till after the real Christmas.” She said trying to keep her laughter contained.  
“but why?” Jack said, this time the look was as if someone had kicked his puppy.  
“because I didn’t get anything else to top the tree.”  
“fiiinnnee.” He said before slowly taking the hat back from Ianto.  
“why?” Ianto said turning to look at her.  
“it came in the mail yesterday from Martha.” Cali said going on tip toe to plant a kiss on his bright red cheek.  
“I should put you on decafe.” He grumbled as they walked back to the main portion.  
“Except I don’t drink coffee,” she said sweetly.  
“Yeah I know... see that threat works on everyone else, what am I going to do to keep you in line?”  
“Nothing.” She said with a grin.

That afternoon they all sat around the board room table for a full Ham and Turkey meal, they had even invited Andy, who had asked Tosh out not long after the being locked in the Hub. Despite her earlier objections to the relationship, Gwen was happy to see her two friends so happy with each other and wished them the best of luck. After dinner they all crowded around the sofa and coffee table with Gwen sitting between Ianto and Owen, Jack sitting on the arm next to Ianto and Cali on the floor leaning against their legs. Andy was sitting in Tosh’s seat and had pulled her onto his lap.  
Gwen and Owen decided to give their gifts first. For Jack they had gotten him tickets to a football game, deciding it was time that he finally went to a live game. Ianto received a sampler bag of different tea’s and Coffee’s from Italy. For Tosh they had gotten the new PDA Gwen had seen her looking at. Cali got a sample pack of different scented lotions and body washes from a small local shop and for Andy they had gotten a gift certificate for one of the nicer restaurants in town, in hope that him and Tosh could have a romantic evening.  
Next Tosh handed out what she had gotten. For Ianto a bottle of cologne that she knew he had been looking for. For Jack she had found several CD’s from the 1940’s, remembering how happy he had seemed several times when they had been sucked back in time the previous year. Cali received just a piece of paper with what appeared to be several file names. She looked up at her friend questioningly.  
“I’ll explain later.” She said chuckling. Finally Tosh and Cali gave their joint gift to Gwen and Owen, a weekend away after the baby was born.  
“Hey that can go with my Gift,” Jack Piped up, “I was going to offer you a weekend of free baby-sitting.”  
“oh um.. well…” Owen and Gwen stumbled over their words as they tried to show that while they appreciated the sentiment that they weren’t quite comfortable with the thought of leaving their child alone with him.  
“I’ll be there with him.” Ianto added in understanding the couple’s problems.  
“Thank you Jack,” Gwen said smiling, “it’s the perfect gift from the three of you.”  
Next Cali gave Andy and Tosh their gifts, a pocket watch for Andy and a day at the spa for Tosh. In Turn Andy Gave Cali a simple gift, a card with thank you written in them. Cali smiled at the PC understanding that he was thanking her for helping him and Tosh to get together. For Ianto he had gotten a certificate for three tickets to a live matinée performance to which ever show he wanted. Tosh he had gotten her a beautiful necklace, the yin and yang symbol made of obsidian and pearl with a line of diamonds between the two.  
“it’s beautiful,” Tosh whispered, as she looked up from the pendant.  
“here.” Gently Andy lifted the necklace and placed it around her neck clasping it before lifting her hair from beneath the delicate chain. Next Jack opened a simple standard tool kit. “sorry mate, wasn’t really sure what to get you.”  
“this is great.” Jack’s eyes lighting up, his mind shifting through endless possibilities.  
“that will stay at the Hub, and sir if you come near my coffee maker with anything from inside that box, the entire Hub will be on instant decafe for a month.” Ianto said without blinking an eye, his tone as if he were giving the latest for a weather report. After a moment of pouting Jack handed Andy and Tosh their gifts. For Andy he had gotten season tickets for both the local Football and Rugby teams. And for Tosh, nestled inside of the tissue paper of the bag was a slim sliver metal device. Her eye darted up to Jack’s.  
“Really?”  
“well I heard just how many books you had, and I figured it couldn’t hurt anything to give you that.”  
“thank you.” She sent him a smile. Finally Ianto handed out the three remaining gifts. For Gwen and Owen a set of baby monitors for when the baby arrived. For Andy a signed Jersey from his favorite Football player, and for Tosh he had gotten her a new leather case for her laptop.  
Soon the team was all headed home, Owen and a very tired pregnant Gwen sliding into their car, and watching as the others waved them off. Cali Ianto and Jack waited till Tosh and Andy had disappeared into the Taxi before they all climbed into the SUV and headed for home. Once there they all changed into their pajamas and climbed into bed.  
“mm forgot something.” Cali said as she snuggled up against Ianto’s side.  
“yeah? What’s that?” Jack asked, his hand pausing in its teasing decent down Ianto arm.  
“these.” She said handing them both a card that she had slid under her pillow. Both boys opened the cards at the same time as Cali sat up on her haunches in excitement. Inside of Jack’s was a ticket for sky diving lessons, “figured you needed a new way to get you adrenalin rush,” she said with a smile. She turned to look at Ianto as he looked down quizzically at the picture inside the card, “I’ll give you a hint, the real ones in the kitchen.”  
“are you telling me, you actually..” for the first time in a long time Ianto felt lost for words.  
“yeah, I know how much you like to make coffee and I saw it and thought of you, though I will admit the fun part was having it hidden in the flat for the last two months.” She said with a smile.  
“Two months?”  
“Yup.”  
“Well my turn.” Ianto crawled out from between the two and moved to the closet, from the top he pulled down a large box and a small bag. Cali watched as Jack tore into the bag with as much enthusiasm as every other present he had opened that day. Inside was a bright blue coffee mug. “One for at home, that way you stop stealing mine.” Ianto said with a gentle smile. Cali smiled as she opened the box in front of her. Inside was a long leather duster made of the same grade and color as her short bomber style jacket she had now and the gloves Ianto had gotten for her that first day. “I figured this would keep you warmer in the field.”  
“its gorgeous, thank you.” She said wrapping her arms around him.  
“my turn my turn my turn.” Jack said running out of the room. He quickly returned with two small boxes and a small envelope. He handed Ianto the box that was thinner and longer before handing Cali the more square of the two. She and Ianto decided to open them at the same time. For Ianto Jack had gotten him a red silk tie, and for Cali a set of emerald green lace bra and underwear. “since you both complain that I ruin them too much. So I figured I’d get a head start on replacement for the new year.” He said with a grin. “And this is for the three of us.” He said handing them the envelope. Cali decided to let Ianto open it and inside was a simple certificate for a thirteen day vacation in Italy, “I want us to be able to get away from it for a little bit.” He said letting them see just how much he loved them in his eyes.  
“so when do we leave?” Cali asked crawling over to hug him.  
“when ever you guys want.”  
“well why not once Gwen comes back from maternity leave?” Ianto suggested as he moved up to Jack’s other side.  
“sounds good.” Cali said as she reached behind her to turn off the light.  
“no,” Jack said as they all snuggled together, “it sounds perfect.”


	19. Attempts at Romance

Cali waited till the boys had left for the day, telling them that she didn’t feel good and thought it best to stay in bed rather than infect the whole Hub, before sliding from bed. Quickly she walked to the supermarket to gather her supply’s for her plans for the day, Everything had to be perfect.

When they boys walked through the door of the flat many hours later, they both froze. The dining room table was set with a white table cloth and there was a set of candles in the middle unlit. Along several of the shelves candles had also set. The whole apartment sat in darkness, the only light coming from the kitchen. Ianto shifted his gaze over to Jack who gave a shrug, both guys had known Cali had been up to something but the fact that she hadn’t immediately appeared made the boys cautious. As they moved forward in the apartment Ianto heard a small noise coming from the kitchen, gently he touched Jack’s arm and nodded his head in the direction of the sounds. Silently they moved their way into the kitchen.   
The small island in the center was littered with what looked like the ends and tails of several vegetables. On the counter next to Ianto’s double over sat a glass pan filled with what one could only assume was a very, very over cooked lasagna and next to it was a second pan with what Ianto could only guess were still raw breadsticks. Across the kitchen around the sink it looked like some sort of salad had thrown up on the counter and floor around the sink. Finally their eyes settled on the figure slumped against the cabinets.   
Cali had backed herself into a corner and had pulled her knees up to her chest and had her chin resting on them. A look of defeat had filled her features as she stared at the result of her attempt at cooking. Quickly Jack and Ianto were at her side, each sliding and arm around her. As soon as she was in their embrace she completely fell apart burring her face in her arms, all she had wanted to do was make the two guys a small romantic dinner for the three of them. Ianto met Jack’s eyes over her head, both clearly wondering what had happened.  
“shh.” Jack tried to quiet her as he gently lifted her into his arms. Quickly they moved from the kitchen, Jack carrying her into the living room where the boys sat next to each other, cuddling her onto their laps.  
“What happened, annwyl?” Ianto whispered as he stroked a thumb across her cheek to brush away the tears.  
“I just wanted to make you guys a nice dinner.” She said sniffling.” I didn’t think it would be that hard. But then while I was rinsing the salad the smoke alarm went off and I ran over to the oven dropping the salad into the sink. I had somehow switched which oven I had put the lasagna and breadsticks in and the lasagna had burnt. So after taking that out I had to stand on the count to turn of the fire alarm and I accidently hit the switch and turned on the garbage disposal and suddenly the salad was flying out of the sink. And that was when I realized that you guys were do home in like 5 minutes and there was no way that I could fix it.” She sniffed again, looking up at them with tear-filled eyes. “I just wanted it to be perfect.”  
Jack tightened his arms around her as Ianto leaned forward to press a kiss to her forehead. “It would have been perfect just because we had you with us.” Jack said, and he hoped that Cali realized that he meant what he said and that Ianto also realized the same went for him.  
“now why don’t we all go out to (insert fancy restraint here)” Ianto said giving her an encouraging smile.  
Jack gave him a frown, it was near impossible to get a reservation there without at least two months’ notice. “isn’t it like impossible to get in there?” Cali sniffed wondering if the night could be salvaged.   
“not if you know the owner.” Ianto said giving her a quick wink. He watched as she considered the though, weighing the options in her mind.  
“can we stay in and do Chinese?” she said eyes darting between the two. She had wanted to be able to stay in and have a candle lit dinner followed by some good cuddling on the couch with a movie or two.  
“what every you want” Ianto said with an easy smile. As Ianto went to receive the menu from the kitchen Cali pulled her phone out and sent a quick txt to Tosh. “well new plan. Burnt the lasagna. Under cooked the breadsticks. And the garbage disposal tossed the salad. The boys found me nearly in the fetal position… decided on Chinese takeout. Will tell all tomorrow.” Suddenly an idea popped into her head and she was jumping off Jack’s lap as Ianto came back in.   
“New plan, lets pick up the Chinese and go have a picnic in the park!” she said looking at them both, a huge smile on her face. Both agreed, just happy that the normal perky happy one of the three was back to her normal self. So they called and ordered the food for pick up before putting together a small basket to take to the park with them. In it they stored a large blanket and all the candles and wine Cali had gotten for the evening. Soon they were all sliding into their boots and coats heading out the door. Cali was happy to see that it was one of the few clear nights in Cardiff and you could see stars for miles. After picking up the food they decided that they were to have their picnic in the same area that Cali had first landed. They all agreed that it was a special place to all of them, in a way it was where they had found each other.  
When they got out of the car Ianto grabbed both the basket and the take out leaving Jack and Cali nothing to carry. As they started up the hill Cali slowly let herself fall back enough where before the boys noticed she had taken a running start and lunched herself onto Jack’s back, causing him to stumble forward before he righted himself. All three of them laughed and soon the two boys decided to race the rest of the way up the hill, Ianto carrying the food and supplies and Jack carrying Cali, who urged Jack forward the whole time, even pressing her heels in at one point. At the top the both where winded from laughing and kind of plopped to the ground. Cali fell to her back try to regain her breath as she fought to control her laughter.  
“since when am I a horse?” Jack said still smiling as he turned to her moving to his hands and knees.  
“umm… Cali started sitting up recognizing the glint in his eyes. “since I said giddy up.” She said laughing. Jack launched himself at her, from which she quickly scrambled out of reach before diving behind Ianto, “Save Me.” She yelp peeking out from around him.  
“I am so not getting in between the two of you.” He said smiling as he started emptying the basket.  
“since when?” Jack asked moving so he was kneeling in front of Ianto effectively putting him directly between the two of them, “you liked being in between us last night." He said moving forward so his and Ianto’s bodies were only centimeters apart. Cali could swear she hear Ianto’s heart skip a beat before it started racing.  
“Yeah Yan.” She said moving so her front was pressed along his back, sliding her arms around his waist and setting her chin on his shoulder.  
“you two are incorrigible” he said giving a near nervous chuckle, one thing Ianto knew was that these were the only two people in the world that he struggled to say no two, and he found it near impossible if they tag teamed him. and for some reason between the feeling of being nestled in Cali’s arms the way he was and Jack’s breath lightly caressing against his cheek Ianto felt as if all reason and thought had fled from his brain. Jack shuffled forward enough to slide his arms around Ianto’s shoulder reaching around Cali as well before laying his head on Ianto’s other shoulder. Ianto leaned his head against Cali’s allowing Jack to nestle his face against his neck, breathing his oh so unique scent. The three of them stayed there like that for a few minutes, letting the world and Universe turn around them as they held each other. When they moved apart, Cali and Jack spread out the Large blanket While Ianto moved to pulled the take out containers from their bag. While Jack moved around the edge of the blanket placing and lighting Candles, Ianto started to divvy up the food and Cali poured the wine. As they ate they chatted idly Topics ranging from work to the latest movies they all gone to see and at one point left Cali and Ianto leaning against each other for support as they laughed watching Jack try to balance his chopsticks end to end on his nose.  
After they had all had their share and the dishes had been packed away and about ¾ of the candles blown out the all lay together staring at the stars, Cali’s head on Ianto, Ianto’s on Jack, and Jack’s on Cali. soon Cali had drifted off the sleep and Ianto turned his head to look at Jack.  
“Jack how did we ever come to this?” Ianto asked “What did we ever do to deserve something so wonderful?”  
“once in a while Yan, the Universe isn’t against you. Once in a while Karma actually likes you. And Once in a while the fates are in your favor. This is one of those times, and if I have learned anything in all my time here is that you stop questioning the Universe, Karma, and the Fates at these times and you just enjoy the ride while the waters smooth, because soon enough all three will decide to laugh at you and your calm waters will churn worse than those of a hurricane.” Jack said running his hand through the young Welshman’s hair, “so don’t question why how or what, just soak it in.” he said with a smile. Soon they both decided it was time to head home and Ianto offered to carry Cali back down to the SUV.

Little did Jack know just how true his words were. While the fates had finally turned the Universe in their favor and allowed Karma to truly let them have the happiness they deserved, they didn’t plan on letting it stay that way. No the Fates had a far more interesting plan for the three of them, and soon everything they thought they knew would end.


	20. Fragments

The three of them had just walked into the Hub has the rift sounded.   
“Time to go already?” Cali said as she headed over to her desk to grab the address.  
“Looks like it what we got?” Jack asked.  
“an old warehouse, got the location, lets go.” Cali said turning. The caught Tosh on the way out and decided to call the others on the way.  
The warehouse was a bright red brick and several story’s high. As they all got out, guns drawn, Ianto was finally had decided to just leave the others a voice mail, “Gwen, we got some activity, I’m texting you the location. Appearing four to five signs of life. Definitely non-human. Get here as soon as you can, both of you.”  
“So, sure they’re not Weevils?” Cali asked, hoping that was the worst thing they would have to deal with so early in the morning.  
“Don’t think so.” Tosh said looking down at her gadget, “Different energy patterns. Can’t make sense of it. Not a species we’ve encountered before.”  
“Let’s hope they’re friendly, then.” Cali said disappointedly.  
“Cali, Ianto, take the other side of the building. Check the upper floors.” Jack said moving into commander mode, “Toshiko, with me.” as they entered the building every one lead with their guns.  
“I’m getting mirror reading on both floors.” Tosh told Jack as they finished the sweep of the second one and still finding nothing. “One creature at either end of the building.”  
Jack hated this but he knew they had to find whatever it was. “Toshiko, split up.”

On the other end of the building Cali had come to the same conclusion and motioned to Ianto to split up, her military training taking over.  
“You know, these creatures are very quiet.” Jack said over the comms.  
“Maybe they’re sleeping” Cali said sarcastically.   
“Or hatching.” Ianto replied, serious as ever.  
“Or maybe they aren’t creatures at all.” Tosh said, a faint beeping echoing over the comms.   
“Just explosive devices.” Jack replied.  
“Shit.” Cali said as she found her own and they all exploded. 

Jack came back to life gasping, his Torchwood beginnings flashing before his eyes including the loss of his beloved Alex. He grasped at the hands that were on him which happen to be that of Gwen and Owen.   
“Jack, what’s happened? Where are the others?”Gwen said worried, “you okay?”  
“Yeah. Yeah” he said trying to pull himself out, “Toshiko, she went the other way.” After shifting some rubble they were able to pull him free.   
“Tosh!” Owen called as they started to make their way in the direction Jack said they headed.  
“Tosh where are you?” Gwen said after a few moments pause.  
“Toshiko!” Jack called.  
“Toshiko, yell if you can hear us!” Gwen called, getting worried about her friend.

Tosh could just hear the cry’s of her friends from where she was buried under the rubble. As the stones pressed against her body she let out the only sound that came to her as her mind raced back in time to before she was in Torchwood, a blood curdling wordless scream. When they found her every shift of the rocks seemed to make her as Gwen and Owen tried to free her.  
“stop, stop, stop! Stop!” Gwen said pausing the other yet again. “Tosh, Tosh, you okay?”  
“you’re making it worse.” She gasped, “It’s pushing down even more. I think I’ve broken my arm. Gwen ….” The fear in her voice killed them all.  
“yeah?”  
“If this pillar shift down even more, it will crush me.” even in a panic Toshiko’s mind could process the mathematics of the downed building and the human bodies abilities.  
“It’s no good Gwen. We’re going to need more strength ….” Owen said, his heart breaking for the sister like girl that was trapped.  
“Okay, look, Jack has gone to find Cali and Ianto.” Gwen said trying to keep calm. “You’re going to be fine, darling, all right? You’re going to be fine.”  
“You’ve got to hurry, please.” Tosh couldn’t keep the fear from taking over any more and the tears were making tracks through the rubble dust on her face.  
“Gwen, help Jack.” Owen urged, his heart breaking, “I’ll stay here.”  
“Are you sure?”  
“yeah”  
“I’m going to come back for you.” She said reassuringly.  
“Gwen…” Tosh called as she started to move away.  
“Yeah love?”  
“If I don’t make it out.” She sobbed, “Tell Andy I love him.”   
“You make sure to tell him that first thing when you see him.” Gwen said reassuringly. “you’re going to be okay.”  
“okay.”

Across the building aways Ianto couldn’t hold back the short scream of pain as he trying to pull himself from the rubble, his shoulder felt as if it were on fire.  
“Ianto! Ianto!” Jack called, desperation clear in his voice. At the sound of Jack’s voice Ianto couldn’t help but remember when they first met, how differently the man had said his name. he could remember the last time he had to work so hard for Jack’s attention and he had never lied when he said he liked the coat. Those bloody pheromones could still wreak havoc with his senses. It had been hard to lie to him those first several months. Gwen reached him just about the same time as Jack and the two of them were able to pull him out. He couldn’t help the yell has Jack pulled on his one arm.  
“You okay?” Jack asked worriedly.  
“My shoulder, I think its dislocated.” He gasped.  
“can you take this?” Jack asked lining it back up. It was pure pride that had him scoff out an affirmative, “Take a deep breath.” Even doing what he was told the shift of bone on bone sent him screaming again before he exhaled.  
“where are the others?” he demanded immediately.  
“we need your help to get Toshiko out.”  
“Cali?”  
“No sign yet.” Gwen informed him.  
“Okay we’ll help Owen with Toshiko.” Jack said, knowing Gwen would be able to keep a more level head over Cali than either himself or Ianto. “Let us know when you find Cali, and be careful.”  
“okay.” She said moving away.  
“Okay? You all right?” Jack asked turning back to Ianto, wanting to strip him them and there to go over every inch of flesh.  
“I’ll be better once we get Cali and Tosh safe.” Ianto answered before kissing him briefly.

Gwen found Cali laying half buried in a pile of rubble, a half broken window hovering precariously over her neck as she tried to pick the ruble from herself.  
“heavens” Gwen said at the state of her friend.  
“Careful.” Cali warned as the window shifted.  
“Okay.” Gwen said as she continued to move toward here, eyeing the window.  
“Just be very careful.” Cali said, her father had stated a bullet to the head would kill her, so she figured decapitation fit the bill as well. It seemed that with every other stone gwen and Cali moved the window would fall a little more.  
“Okay I’m going to do this quickly and carefully,” Gwen said, “Listen to me, I’m going to get you out of this.” Cali wanted to tell the Welsh woman to just shut up but she knew that they rambling was helping Gwen to stay calm.  
“Okay, Cali, hold my hand.”  
“Slowly.” Cali warned, her twin hearts racing as her death literally inched closer.  
“Hold my hands.” Suddenly she jerked Cali forward just as the glass came down, shattering where neck had just been.  
“Lets get the hell out of here.” Cali said as she got to her feet.  
“I’m with you.” 

Just as they exited one side of the building so did Jack, followed closely by Ianto and Owen who were supporting Tosh.  
“You all right?” Cali said, searching her two lovers for any sign of major injury, “Tosh, what happened?”  
“Broken arm, bruised ribs. About an inch away from being crushed by a girder.”  
“we were lucky.” Cali said.  
“We all were.” Ianto affirmed, mentally checking over Cali for any sign of injury.  
“Jack whose done this?” Gwen asked just as his vortex manipulator began to beep.  
“Where’s the SUV?” Owen asked not seeing it any where.  
Just then a hollow gram showed from Jack’s Vortex Manipulator. “Oh, no.” Jack said seeing who it was.  
“Jack what does he want?” Gwen asked.  
“Oh, déjà vu.” Captain John Hart started, “or did I already say that? Hey, team! Of course, there might be a few less of you by now. Don’t know if you liked my little gift. Of course, you can’t die.”  
“Ianto who is that?” Cali asked, Jacks secret was, well just that, a secret.  
“Captain John Hart.”  
“And with all that life, all that time,” Hart continued, “you cant spare any for me. Oh!”  
“is he …”  
“an ex lover yes.” Ianto said, the words leaving a bad taste in his mouth.  
“I am so going to enjoy killing him.” Cali muttered.  
“Say hi to the family.” Suddenly another figure appeared.  
“No way, it can’t be.” Jacks voice nearly shook as he spoke, his skin loosing color at the sight of the other man.  
“Been a while since you’ve seen your brother, eh, Jack?” the other captain continued.  
“Gray?” it was nearly a shouted question, one filled with so many emotions.  
“Okay, here is what’s going to happen. Everything you love, everything you treasure will die. I’m going to tear your world apart, Captain Jack Harkness. Piece by piece, starting now. Maybe now you’ll want to spend some time with me.” as the projection ended, Cali couldn’t think of a time she had seen Jack look angrier, or as scary as he did in that moment.  
“Jack, I know I’m out of the loop on this one, but we will stop him and we will save your brother.” Cali said setting a hand on his arm.  
“I know.”


	21. Exit Wounds

“Bastard John’s taken our SUV” Cali muttered as they all trekked toward Gwen and Owens car.  
“Looks like he’s driven it back to Torchwood.” Ianto said looking at the GPS tracker.  
“I’m getting reading of rift activity all over the City.” Tosh said as Owen helped her to the car. “Major rift flares at St. Helen’s hospital, the police headquarters,” every one heard her voice hesitate over that location “and the Central IT server station.” Just then her phone rang, with a short struggle she pulled it out, relief on her face, “Hey, Andy” she answered. “Okay, I’m a little un abel to at the moment, but I will send Gwen, all right?”  
“This is him, isn’t it, this Captain John or what he likes to call himself.” Cali said helping lower Tosh into the car.  
“Owen, once we are all gone, you cover the hospital. Drop Tosh and Ianto at the Central Server Building. Gwen and Cali, the police station and take me to Torchwood.  
“Jack, these are traps.” Tosh argued.   
“So be careful, you know what he is capable of.”  
“Um … I don’t!” Cali put in, “besides explosives.”  
“I’ll explain on the way.” Ianto said. “What about you?” he said looking at Jack.  
“I’m gonna go reason with him.”  
“He just tried to kill us.” Cali pointed out.  
“good thing I cant die then.” He said shrugging, “I was the only one who could ever control him. That’s why the Time Agency partnered us.”  
“Fucking TA.” Cali growled. “I take it he was an agent too?”  
“yeah.”  
“and this is why no one likes them, they hire psychopaths and sociopaths.”  
“I take offense to that.” Jack said.  
“you should.” Cali shot back.  
“Why is he doing this, Jack? What does he want?”  
“That’s what I’m gonna go ask him.”  
“did you hear him?” Cali asked, “he wants you to spend time with him. You bloody well better warn him Jack that the person you are dating now is a helluva lot more psychotic than anyone he’s ever met, and extremely jealous. I will cut a bitch.” Cali warned, her blood boiling. 

Cali couldn’t believe her eyes when they got to the police station. The walls had been splattered with blood and they could see several slain officers bodies still littering the ground.  
“Andy.” Gwen said rushing forward.  
“Thay just appeared out of nowhere,” he said, “across the whole building. They weren’t human. At least not like any human I’ve ever seen. Half the station’s in shock. Four most senior officers murdered. Everyone is running around like headless chickens.”  
“Don’t worry Andy, we’ll take care of it.” Cali assured him. Quickly he brought them to the holding cells. Where Gwen and Cali found a heard of extremely aggravated Weevils.  
“What the hell are they?” Andy asked.  
“Weevils.” Both girls answered together.  
“They live in the sewers.” Gwen provided.  
“Tell me you’re joking.”  
“Not at all I’m afraid.” Cali said shaking her head. “Don’t mind if we subdue them do you?” Cali asked.  
“Be my guest.” Andy said. Quickly Gwen tossed in a small smoke bomb filled with the anti Weevil Serum.  
“They killed the four most senior officers” Gwen asked.  
“Almost like it was targeted.”  
“Weevils aren’t that intelligent.” Cali said.  
“maybe they’ve been trained?” Gwen suggested, hand moving to her Comm, “Tosh, reposrt where you are.”  
“Just entering the Central Server.” Her voice filled both Comms sets, “No sign of rift activity yet. This building houses servers for the military, police, NHS. Even looks after the server systems for the nucular station at Turnmill.”  
“What problem did they report?” Ianto asked.  
“Ghosts. IN these server stacks.”  
“Hows the arm?” Owen injected, he had done his best to do a quick patch in the car, along with a good few doses of industrial strength painkillers.  
“Seems to be doing the trick.” She answered, “Ianto.” Suddenly her voice was on edge. Ianto saw why as soon as she turned around, there were three masked figured all carrying menacing looking Syths.  
Suddenly all three spoke, “Devils! Blasphemers! Pray to your heathen god while in the Lord’s name we cast you out.”   
Over the Comms suddenly Cali heard gun shots, “IANTO!” She yelled, her nerves were to far on end after the explosion.  
“There we are, then.” He answered calmly.  
“Sorted.” Tosh followed mater of factly. “All we had were a few crazy humans,”  
“We shot them.” Ianto provided.  
“Oh thank god, we got crazy weevils.” Gwen replied rolling her eyes.  
“Owen, it’s Gwen. Do you have anything to report?” Gwen asked her and Cali waited for Ianto and Toshs help with the Weevils.  
“We got some activity in the basement.” Owen said. A few moments later he came back, “Got a Hoix here. Wish me luck, I’m going in to sedate.”  
“Owen, you bloody well better be careful.” Gwen demanded.  
“All fixed.” He said a moment later.  
“Good lets all try to get these back to the Hub.” Cali suggested.  
“how exactly are we going to do that?” Owen grouched.  
“in the boot of your car.” Cali provided.  
“Attention, Torchwood employees. Evening all.” Suddenly all of their Comms were filled with John Harts voice, “Now, stop what you are doing.”  
“Jack, whats going on? Are you okay?” Cali demanded.  
“Jack can’t come to the comms right now, bur if you leave a message, I’ll be sure and pass it along. Well that’s a new voice, have you been recruiting?” John asked Jack.  
“what’ve you done to him?” Gwen demanded.  
“no, no, wrong question. You should be asking what am I about to do to you.”  
“Put Jack on right now.”  
“Eye-candy! That was so masterful, so bossy, so basically powerless. Get up to the roofs of your building quickly now. Spit-spot.”  
“listen here you psychotic bastard, if you hurt a single member of this team I will skin you alive and hang your hide as art. And if you ever call Ianto eye-candy again, I’ll feed you your own tongue and eye balls.” Cali growled into the comms.  
“so feisty. You know I actually look forward to meeting you. We’ll see how cocky you are in a few minutes though. If you don’t hurry, well, you’ll miss all the fun. Wait a minute, so I mean fun? Do I mean carnage? I get them confused. Are you running yet? No dawdling now.”  
“You really do like the sound of your own voice don’t you asshole?” Cali asked as her and Gwen headed to the roof of the police station, she really couldn’t wait to get her hand on this asshole.  
“Gwen? Cali? Where are you going?” Andy called.  
“Cardiff, isn’t it pretty?” John asked “Doesn’t it twinkle so. Take a good look. Remember this, ‘cause it all goes so quick.” Suddenly there was an explosion, and then another, and another; fifteen in total.  
“oh, god.” Gwen said looking out over the city she had grown up in.  
“oh, shit” Andy said from behind them, “oh, my God. What do we do? What do we do?” he demanded, panic clear in his voice.  
“okay, get down there, keep everyone calm,” Gwen ordered him, “tell them to get every officer in. RUN!” she sent him out to be in charge of the police before turning to Cali, “now what do we do?”  
“we let them handle the civilians, we go find this John Hart and we destroy him. Get every one on the Comms make sure they are all ok and partition out orders to them.” She said pulling hers off, “I’m going to go hot wire us a car.”  
“Tosh, Ianto, Owen, are you okay?” Gwen asked as she followed Cali down the stairs. “Good, okay, good. Cali is working on getting us a ride here on our end. Tosh, do we have the scale of the damage on the city? …. Right, Tosh, Ianto, you have to stabilize the nuclear power station. Make that a priority.” Cali whipped her head around.  
“oh for the love of god, I am going to kill that man when I finally meet him.” She muttered, “tell Ianto that if he hurts himself I’ll kick his ass.” Cali said pointing a finger at Gwen.  
“Be careful, Cali said she would kick your arse if you get hurt Ianto.” Gwen said into the comms, “Owen, whats it like at the hospital? …. Okay, all of you, listen to me. we’re gonna fix this, we’re gonna put this city back together, we’re going to find Jack, and we’re going to punish John. More like watch Cali punish John, Ianto I have never seen here this pissed, its kind of scary. Now I need you to be careful. Okay?” She watched as Cali ripped open the door of a police cruiser and hot wired it, “where are you Jack?” she whispered. “where are you?”  
“Get in, lets go.”  
“Wait I have to try to help here.” Gwen said looking at the mass Chaos inside the precinct.  
“then hurry up.”  
She wastched as Gwen walked in and stood on the main desk giving a short whistle to gather everyone, “This was a targeted attack designed to cause maximum panic. Usual emergency procedures wont cover whats happened here. This is where we find out how good we really are. Cover the whole city. Knock on doors, check on people, tell people that they are safe and that it is being dealt with. Get out there and do your jobs.”  
“Good now lets go.” Cali had to admit, she could see why Gwen had taken over when Jack had left, she kept a cool head under pressure. A few moments later Gwen pressed a hand to her Comms unit.  
“Do you think it could be him?” she asked  
“What is it?”  
“Tosh just got a rift alert from inside the hub mirroring the pattern from when Jack disappeared.”  
“I guess we are going to the Hub.” When they got to there Cali sen Gwen down via the tourist office while she took the lift. “Be carefull.” She warned Gwen.  
“You too, and wait a few moments so we go in together.”  
“I don’t feel like being ambushed. “ Cali waited a few moments, trying to estimate where Gwen would be before stepping onto the lift. Her head had just cleared the main ground when she heard Gwen shouting at someone.  
“On your knees!”  
“Honestly, its just sex, sex, sex with you.” The voice that had been tormenting them all night replied.  
“Now!” Gwen shouted with an accompanied cocking of her gun. “hands behind your head.” Cali jumped from the lift when it was about five feet up still before briskly making her way towards the ruckuss.  
“Is this him?” she asked, gun already out.  
“Cali-Ann, meet Captain John Hart.”  
“I’m going to need a really good reason not to skin you alive before letting her shoot you.” Cali glared down at the man.  
“I know where Jack is.”  
“You’re lying.” Gwen replied.  
“He’s buried alive somewhere beneath this city. I came back to help you.”  
“You bombed this city.” Cali pointed out.  
“Listen to me!” he shouted, “you have to believe me. It’s Gray, Jack’s brother, that’s been doing all this.”  
“Don’t talk rubbish.”   
“He placed a bomb on me. Molecularly bonded the detonator to my skin. I had to do what he wanted. Look.” He said standing up and holding out one hand with a device that looked similar to Jack’s Vortex Manipulator. “He forced me to bury Jack and then he freed me. He told me I could go anywhere I wanted. I could have run but I chose to some back here.”  
“Why should we trust you?” Cali asked, she could see that the Manipulator had been tampered with and did appear to be adhered to his skin.  
“They were separated as children, Gray was abducted. When I found him, he was chained to the ruins of a city in the Bedlam Outlands, surrounded by corpses. He was the only one left. The creature had long since gone. Don’t know how long he’s been there. He thought I was the rescuing hero. So, it took me too long to realise he’d learned terrible things watching those creatures. He let me trust him.” Suddenly John started screaming, Cali pushed Gwen behind her, not wanting to risk the baby. “The molecules are un-bonding. Just like he promised.” Clenching his teeth he ripped the manipulator away from his wrist, creating a large patch of raw flesh. “See? Free man, apparently. I didn’t have to come back here, I could have run.”  
“So you keep saying.” Cali was getting tired of the monologue, and was more interested in saving Jack and the city. “You find Jack, I’ll let you live, but you better be quick.”  
“Fine.” Looking down at his manipulator which he held in his hands he pushed a few buttons, “Toshiko. I need you to run a trace for an etheric particle signal NME, transmitting at 200 beta-cycles.”  
“Gwen, Cali, where are you? Whats he doing? Wheres Jack?”  
“Trace that signal. We’ll find him.”   
“It’s okay Tosh, we’ve got him covered.” Gwen reassured her, Cali still had yet to put her comms back in. “Do as he says.”  
“No signals even vaguely resembling that.”  
“No, there must be.” John insisted, “That transmitter was guaranteed for five millennia. Through three ecological permi-layers, it has to still be transmitting. If not, we’ll never find him. He’ll be buried forever.” Suddenly the Hub was filled with a high pitched screeching, Cali’s ears felt as if they were going to burst.  
“What the hell is that?” Gwen asked, clutching at her ears, moving over to one of the computers and pulling up the CCTV footage. “Theres Weevils loose in the lower corridors.” John, moved up to stand next to her, Quickly she moved away, “Stay there, stay there.” She said moving to point her gun at him again.  
“Oh my god. Whats going on? How did they get out?” Cali wondered, trying to get her head to stop pounding.  
“It’s Gray. He must be here in the city.” John said. “He said he was going to take Jack’s life, destroy it from the inside out. A Weevil wakeup call could be just the beginning.”  
“Owen, Gwen, Cali, can you hear me? The streets are flooded with Weevils.” Ianto said over the comms. “They came out of nowhere. There’s no chance we’ll get to the nuclear power station in time.”  
“Ianto, leave it to me.” Owen said, knowing he would be much closer than the others. “I can get there.”  
“Owen bloody Harper, you better be careful.” Gwen growled into the comms. “I am telling you, I have run every san possible.” Gwen said looking at John, “there is no signal traceable.”  
“Then try again, it’s go to be there.” He insisted, “Oi! I’m talking to you.” Suddenly the Hub was filled with Weevils.  
“You know, you got a real pest problem around here.”  
“Shut the hell up!” Cali said finally snapping. Suddenly Ianto and Tosh came in, quickly subduing all three of them.   
“God, I’m so please to see you.” Gwen said. Suddenly Ianto was walking towards John, gun pointed at his head. Cali moved in quickly pushing the gun up, blocking him.  
“Hey! Hey!” John called hands up in surrender. “Don’t start. I’ll make thing right, eye-candy.” Cali whipped around eyes on fire. “Ianto, I meant Ianto.”  
“Then start by getting those Weevils down the vaults before they recover. Takes more than a bullet to stop them.” Cali said, “Tosh I need your best on the go Tech, I’m going to go help Owen.”  
“Cali, are you sure?” Ianto said, taking her shoulders in his hands.   
“We have to save this city, it’s what Jack would want.”  
“Be careful.” He said kissing her quickly.  
“Always, and Don’t trust him Ianto.”  
“I wont.”   
“Cali, I’ll talk you and Owen through everything.”  
“right, I should put this back in then.” She said sliding her Comms unit in, “I’m taking the SUV.”

Cali made it to the power plant as quickly as possible, finding Owen and another lady in the main room.  
“A soldier never leaves her post.” She said.  
“Yeah well, your going to want to.” Cali said.  
“You can go now, okay? We’re with Torchwood and we’re dealing with it.” Owen said a little calmer.  
“Yeah? What do you know about nuclear containment structure?”  
“Well, I’m only a layman, but I’m presuming if you’ve run out of power then the containment structure’s over-pressurized, the containment spray and cooling systems aren’t working so the fuel probably cant be cooling down, it’s over heating.” Owen said. “So sooner, rather than later, there will be a meltdown, and radioactive material will be released into the atmosphere. Yeah? Roughly.”  
“Roughly.” She answered.  
“Right.” Cali said setting her bag down on the console, “you need to go. “  
“Be careful, there are creatures out there on the loose.” Owen said, “Take this,” he said giving her a Weevil spray, “it’s a kind of mace.”  
“Sounds more dangerous out there that in here.”  
“yeah, I’d say its pretty much even. Go.”  
She started walking out before turning to look at Owen, “Thank you.”  
“I don’t think she liked me much.” Cali pointed out.  
“Tosh, you’re going to have to help us out here. I haven’t got a bloody clue what I’m doing.” Owen called back over the comms.   
“Okay. I don’t want you to panic.” Tosh said. “but the reactor’s already hit the critical point.”  
“Okay, you’re telling me its going into meltdown, aren’t you?” Owen said.  
“And we’re in the eye of the storm.” Cali, concluded.   
“yeah, sorry.”   
“Right, can you fix it?” Owen asked, his mind racing to his wife and unborn child.  
“Of course I can, I’m brilliant.” Tosh answered.  
“Yeah.” Cali replied.  
“I’m going to try and divert power from an auxiliary source back to Turnmill. If that works, I can talk you through restoring the coolant system. Right. Now…” suddenly they heard a gun shot over the comms.  
“Tosh?” Cali said, panic rising. “Tosh can you hear me?”  
“Tosh, can you hear me?” Owen demanded, “Tosh?”  
“Tosh, talk to me.” Cali called, looking at Owen worriedly. “I need your help here, babe.”  
“Tosh?” Owen, called, getting extremely worried about all involoved, “Come on, girl.” Suddenly the lights came back on. “Here we go!”   
“Right, you’ve done it, Tosh” Cali encouraged, still worried that they hadn’t actually heard from her yet, “we’ve got power.”  
“You okay?” Owen asked, hearing the pained gasp.  
“Yeah. I’m fine.”  
“Right. Whats going on there?” Cali demanded.  
“Just a … machine malfunction.”  
“you hurt?” Owen asked.  
“who, me? no I’m fine. It’s just my arm.”  
“okay.”  
“I’m sorting out another painkiller.”  
“Good. Well, come on, let’s do this.”  
“All right. Okay.”  
“Oh, God.”  
“Whats the matter?” Cali asked.  
“Theres no way to stop the melt. It’s too far gone.”  
“Okay, okay, that is not good is it?” Owen responded. “Come on, Tosh. Theres gotta be something, theres always something. Come on.”  
“The only option now is to vetn the flow channels internally.”  
“Vent them where?” Cali asked.  
“the area you’re in, it’s a containment building.”  
“yeah.”  
“you need to set up a time-delay program. Channel the fuel into that bunker and instigate permanent lockdown. Seal the building and the meltdown will be contained within. And obviously remember to get out.”  
“yeah, I think we can remember that bit.” Owen said.   
“I’ll open the system protocol. You just need to enter the time frame and authorize it, okay?”  
“okay, Tosh, lets do this thing. And, Tosh, thank you.”   
“That’s what I’m here for.”  
Both of them immediately started to hit the buttons as they were told until the right message flashed on screen.  
“Yes! Rock and Roll!” Owen shouted.  
“Oh, no. Owen, Cali, get out of there. There’s a power surge in the system. When that hits, it’ll trigger an emergency lockdown.” Just as she said that the door suddenly slid shut.   
“No! No! Tosh!” Cali shouted.  
“Toshiko, we can’t get out!” Owen said as he pounded on the door. “I’m not dying yet!”  
“Cali, in your bag, there should be something to open the door.” Tosh instructed.  
“Cali, Tosh has been shot.” Ianto said over the comms.  
“Damn it Tosh, you said you were fine.” Owen said as Cali worked the door.  
“Owen, lets go!” Cali said as the door slid open, once they were out she pulled the device off the door slid back shut. “Talk them through helping Tosh, I’ll drive.”   
“Ianto, you need to start her on blood right away, type A, under the cabnet.”

When they got there, Owen was able to stich Tosh up while Cali and Ianto helped Jack put Gray into the Cryo Chamber. They sent Hart away with a warning never to come back. The rest of the week was spent trying to help put the city back together as best as possible.


	22. Epilogue

Two Weeks Later

Cali stretched out and groaned, wishing she could stay in bed a few more minutes.  
“If you want a hot shower before Jack gets in there you have about 1 minute.” Ianto said coming into the room and starting to flip through his suits. At the thought of the cold shower she would have to take otherwise Cali Jumped out of bed and rushed to the bath room shutting and locking the door just as Jack started down the hallway.  
“Hey no fair, I’ve been awake for hours.” Jack said from outside the door.  
“Then you should have gotten in earlier.” Cali replied sliding the chair in front of the door, it wasn’t the first time she had stolen the shower from Jack and it wouldn’t be the first time he would pick the lock to get in. she turned and started the shower sliding under the steaming spray.  
“You should have gotten up earlier,” he grumbled walking into the bedroom. Ianto stood in front of the full length mirror straightening his tie, his Jacket and vest resting on the chair next to it. “Did you have to warn her?” Jack asked before flopping down on the bed to sulk.  
“Jack it would have been cruel not to, you take a 45 minute long shower.” Ianto looked at him in the mirror, “and I don’t even want to know why it takes you that long.”  
“What’s wrong with waking up to a nice long hot shower in the morning?” he asked shrugging.  
“Nothing,” Cali answered sauntering back into the room, “when you are the only one who needs to shower in the morning.” She walked over to the closet and pulled out a pair of black jeans and a red tank top As Jack made a dash for the bathroom. She turned and saw that Ianto had on his red tie and smirked, Tosh was so going to give her shit for that. Though, if Jack ended up with one of his two red vests that day, the entire office would be in up roar, oh well. Quickly she got dressed before going to join Ianto in the kitchen.   
She lifted herself onto the counter and watched as he started to make the second round of coffee for him and Jack that morning. She had to admit that life was good. She had the best two guys in the world and wonderful friends, not to mention a job she loved. Still the encounter the previous week was still fresh in her mind, including the fact that all 3 of them had been trapped, and Ianto could have been killed. She still hadn’t found a way to keep him with her and Jack forever. Not to mention that Jack had seemed different since they had put Grey into the crypto chamber.  
“Yan?” she asked as he handed her a cup of hot coco with just a touch of coffee.  
“Yeah?” he answered taking a sip of his own steaming beverage.  
“Is it just me or does Jack seem... I don’t distant since that whole thing with his brother and Hart?” Cali was hoping that it was just her but she had a sinking feeling that something bad was about to happen.  
“I’m sure he just needs some time, I mean he’s been looking for Grey for forever.” She had to smile, even in the worse situations Ianto was nothing but logical.  
“Yeah I guess you’re right.” She said with a smile. Once Jack was out of the shower they all headed down to the SUV to head to the hub.

As was normal they were the first ones in. Ianto went to start the coffee for the rest of the team while Jack went up to his office and shut the door to start making his normal daily phone calls with Unit and other various government agencies. Cali headed down to the vaults to take care of Janet. Things were calm until around lunch. Ianto and Cali had gone out to pick up lunch when the rift alarm went off. Jack ordered Tosh, Gwen and Owen to check it out before he made his phone call.

As Ianto and Cali neared the Hub Cali heard the tell tail sound of her father’s TARDIS and broke into a sprint. it had been just over 6 months since they had been reunited and about 4 months since they had seen each other. She rounded into the bay in time to see the old blue police box fade into thin air. Confused she searched her pocket for the phone he had given her last time they had saw each other so she could reach him. When she found the phone missing from its normal inside pocket she panicked and ran into the empty Hub. Immediately she ran to Jack’s office where she found a note folded on his empty desk. She collapsed into the chair as Ianto followed her in.   
“He left didn’t he?” he asked looking dispassionately at the paper.  
“I haven’t read it, but my phones missing. The one my father gave me.” She pulled her knees into her chest. Ianto reached over and plucked the note from the desk.

Ianto, Cali,

I’m sorry I couldn’t stay to say good bye, and tell the other’s I’m sorry for the false alarm. If I had tried to tell you all goodbye you would have tried to stop me and I couldn’t allow that. I have to try to find a way to save Grey. He’s family and I have to do everything in my power to help him. Cali, don’t be mad at the Doctor I’m sure he wanted to say hello, but I told him you were with the others and it couldn’t be helped. Don’t worry I’ll be back before you know it. I’m sure you will all do fine without me there. Cali make sure nothing happens to my Tea Boy, and Ianto make sure Cali-Ann doesn’t get herself into trouble. 

Love  
Your Captain

“Well at least this time he left a note.” Ianto said just as the alarm went off signaling the other’s return.  
“JACK!” Owen hollered as they walked in.  
“Is gone.” Cali said walking out of the office.  
“What do you mean he’s gone?” Tosh asked worry filling his soft features.  
“He called my father and left to find a way to save his brother. He said sorry for the false alarm and to go on without him. Gwen from what I hear you took over last time he ran out on everyone, would you be willing to negotiate in that area?” Cali said moving past the fact that he had left them.  
“I never wanted that responsibility back, it’s all yours.” The Welsh woman said her face filled with hurt.  
“Good. Tosh what are the rift predictions?”  
“Clear for the rest of the evening.”  
“Ok, if anything changes I’ll be down stairs” she said before stalking off toward the armory. Ianto watched her go and wondered how long she would hold on before she had to break down over this.  
“Is she ok?” Tosh asked as they all watched the newest of them walk away as if it was just another day.  
“No,” Ianto answered, “she asked me this morning if Jack seemed off and I reassured her that everything would be fine.”  
“You couldn’t know he was going to pull another Houdini, mate.” Owen said heading down to the autopsy bay.  
“We all should have known.” Gwen said quietly from her desk, “because that’s what Jack does, he runs when things get hard.”  
Tosh turned “that’s-“  
“No she’s right Toshiko,” Ianto said moving to take the lunch to the boardroom, “lunch will be set up in about ten minutes if anyone is still hungry.” Ianto quickly set out the food him and Cali had picked up before moving out to his station. Quickly he turned opened the CCTV footage of the Torchwood shooting range. He watched as Cali manually loaded the clip of her ever trusty Smith and Wesson before emptying it with dead accuracy into the many Alien-esque targets. He watched as she filled the clip four more times and repeatedly killed her paper advisories. He watched as she methodically pulled the weapon apart and cleaned every piece thoroughly before putting it back together again. He watched still as she disappeared into the small room off the side that was the girl’s locker room. With a few key strokes he changed over to the CCTV that looked in at the small gym.   
As he waited for her to emerge he pulled up the video of the hub starting after they had left to get lunch. Minutes after they had left for the small bakery, Jack could just be scene hitting a button or two on his vortex manipulator causing the rift alerts to go off. Quickly he strode from the office to give the orders that sent the rest of the team to the field. Not even ten seconds after the cog door had rolled closed he pulled the blue cell phone from his pocket and made the call. He walked out of the Hub a minute later and thirty seconds from there he watched as Cali ran into the Hub.   
When Cali walked out of the locker room she had changed into a pair of black yoga pants and black sports bra. He saw that she had wrapped her hands in her thin black wraps and watched as she walked over the hanging heavy bag in the corner. This had been what he had been waiting for and as she took the first swing he turned the moniter off and stood up. he pulled off his coat and vest hanging them on his chair. He tossed his tie and cufflinks onto the desk before heading gown to the gym, rolling his sleeves up as he went. He knew Cali would need him there when she finally broke, and he knew that she might need to take a few swings at him before she did. As he walked into the gym he watched her send the heavy bag thudding into the wall as the chain snapped. As the bag fell to the floor so did she. Landing on her hands and knees, her body began to shake as she started to sob. Ianto moved quickly over to her and pulled her into his lap, cradling her against his chest.  
“shh, its ok, I’m still here for you.” He said kissing her forehead gently.  
“promise you wont leave me Ianto.” She begged, gripping his shirt as she looked up at him, “promise you wont ever leave me.”  
“I’m not going anywhere.” He whispered before pressing his lips to hers.


End file.
